Message from the Chairman and Director



Dear Colleagues:

We are pleased to introduce the articles that make up this issue of e-CGIAR News and proud to be associated with the innovative efforts they describe. One of the messages they convey is that effective partnerships are central for achieving such diverse aims as better water management, conservation and use of plant genetic resources, protection of plants and animals against disease, production and marketing of crops and policy formulation.

This issue, like other recent ones, opens with a personal view, essentially an opinion article by CGIAR researchers, in which they reflect on the power of collective action and on the importance of deliberately fostering it.

Just as we promote that view in rural communities, we must also put it into practice in our organizations. This was the view that seemed to guide our deliberations in the May meeting of the CGIAR Executive Committee (ExCo), held at Madrid, Spain. Fionna and I both came away from the event with a strong sense of the CGIAR's healthy appetite for collaborative efforts to achieve positive change. ExCo participants discussed at length two areas in particular, where the potential for achieving a more collective approach is especially great.

One concerns the second cycle of Challenge Programs. The CGIAR has approved that programs be developed on three themes - agriculture and climate change, combating desertification and the potential of high-value crops (specifically fruits and vegetables)and called for wide dissemination of the themes, with the aim of generating a sizable number of diverse pre-proposals. This process represents a valuable opportunity for the CGIAR to more sharply focus its own capabilities, while reaching out to new partners, whose collaboration may be critical for meeting the challenges effectively.

The second area was CGIAR "alignment," the theme of a half-day workshop held in conjunction with ExCo. The event yielded insights from past and current efforts, thought-provoking external perspectives and an abundance of new ideas. Contingent on the approval of the CGIAR, we expect to move forward on this issue through a facilitated change management process, for which a "scoping team" will be formed in the next few months. With the aid of a professional facilitator, the team will craft a proposal for consideration at the next ExCo in October.

We will watch these processes unfold with much interest throughout the rest of the year, leading up to our next Annual General Meeting (AGM07). To be held at Beijing, China, on December 3-6, it will feature a Science Forum, constituting our annual stakeholder meeting. Through this event, we expect to engage the 64 Members of the CGIAR in a stimulating dialogue about the power of science for development.

In the introduction to subsequent issues of e-CGIAR News, you will be hearing from Ren Wang, who, as many of you know, has been named new CGIAR Director and will be joining the Secretariat in late July.

Sincerely,

Katherine Sierra CGIAR Chair

Fionna Douglas Acting CGIAR Director