News and Views

Future Harvest Alliance Innovations: Working Together Better

The Center Directors Committee (CDC), along with representatives from the Center Board Chairs (CBC) and the CDC/Center Deputy Directors Committee (CDDC) Working Group for Sub-Saharan Africa met in Addis Ababa July 8-9, 2004 to review existing mechanisms and create, enhance and enforce a dynamic collaboration, both among Centers, and with the larger CGIAR stakeholder community. The agenda focused on identifying deficiencies in existing arrangements and developing the collective means for addressing them proactively.

To capitalize on opportunities, key actions and recommendations agreed at the retreat include:

• Formally establishing a Future Harvest Alliance, building on the platform of existing collaboration in managerial, administrative and policy work
  
• Transforming the existing Center Directors Committee into a new Alliance Executive to strengthen strategic management
  
• Constituting the Committee of Board Chairs (CBC) into an Alliance Board with responsibility for exercising oversight on Center contributions to System-wide issues and ensuring Center compliance
  
• Adopting alliance mechanisms and processes to create fair and independent means of mediation and arbitration to resolve conflicts among peers
  
• Adding capacity to the CGIAR System Office through a strengthened Centers' Secretariat that will be tasked with supporting more frequent and coordinated interactions with the CGIAR Chairman and Director
  
• Tasking the Center Deputy Directors Committee to map existing standards and practices involved in Centers work, and under the direction of the Alliance Executive (ex-CDC) working to set priorities and creating new system-wide working methods
  
• Encouraging greater use of contract mechanisms to add clarity, transparency and enforceability to existing and future collaborative arrangements.

We believe these changes will benefit the whole CGIAR System, allowing the Centers to deploy resources more strategically and efficiently so as to better meet the articulated demands of our partners. In addition, the Centers will be able to make a stronger and more strategic contribution to the CGIAR Executive Council and CGIAR System Office. Collective actions by the Centers will lead to stronger common policy positions, and impact.

Programmatically, the urgency is in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). New collective actions will begin immediately with pilot consolidated sub-regional efforts in Eastern Africa, in partnership with ASARECA, followed by other sub-regions. The pilots will align Centers representation, partnerships, programs and operational support at the sub-regional level. It will be a collaboration with Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), national research systems, civil society, regional, sub-regional bodies and international bodies and investors as appropriate. A strategy process will be launched in 2005 for developing a coordinated SSA capacity-building plan for national agricultural research and extension system partners, largely implemented at sub-regional organization level in SSA. We are working closely with the two CGIAR System Task Forces to develop solutions to ease current managerial burdens at the national program level.

The new Alliance Executive plans to implement these changes in a consultative, professional and well-resourced manner that does not shy away from the complexity of the reforms that are necessary. The next stage is to establish a common platform for moving forward, which we hope will be solidified during the CGIAR Annual General Meeting in October 2004.

Kanayo F. Nwanze,
Chair, Center Directors Committee

Meryl J. Williams,
Executive Officer, Future Harvest Alliance Office