A "Dialogue on CGIAR Challenge Programs" was held on March 23 at the World Bank. CGIAR Chair Ian Johnson opened the event, and CGIAR Director Francisco Reifschneider served as Moderator.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz attended part of the session. This was the first time that a World Bank President took part in a technical seminar organized by the CGIAR Secretariat. Participants welcomed his presence, and were reassured by his reaffirmation of support for agriculture and agricultural research. He asked a number of questions about the scope of Challenge Programs and about the need for support to agriculture at a time of increasing urbanization in many developing countries.

A CGIAR Challenge Program (CP) is a time-bound, independently governed program of high impact research that targets CGIAR goals in relation to complex issues of overwhelming global and/or regional significance, and requires partnerships among a wide range of institutions.

Implementation of the first CPs began in 2003, with strong support from the World Bank. Currently, four CPs are in various stages of implementation, with a total budget of $44 million in 2005, which is about 9 percent of the total resources provided by CGIAR Members and other donors.

The Dialogue enabled program directors/coordinators of CPs to give stakeholders an update on how the CPs are progressing, and to discuss key issues including the governance of CPs, intra-CP collaboration, and prevention of overlap. Stakeholders such as the World Bank, USAID, USDA, the Inter-American Development Bank and other institutions with representatives in the Washington DC were able to know more about CPs, their specific objectives, approaches, modes of operation; and the extent of progress made.

Presenters at the Dialogue were:

• Jean Marcel-Ribaut, Program Director, Generation, CP ;
• J. V. Meenakshi, Policy and Impact Co-ordinator, and Bonnie McClafferty, Communication Co-ordinator, HarvestPlus CP;
• Jonathan Woolley, Program Co-ordinator, Water and Food CP;
• Freddie Kwesiga, Program Co-ordinator, Sub-Saharan Africa CP.

The UN has designated 2006 as the Year of Deserts and Desertification as a means of creating increased attention to the problems caused by desertification.

For some 35 years several CGIAR Centers and their partners have been conducting research whose results help to combat desertification and its harmful consequences. The CGIAR has concentrated most of its efforts in three specific areas:

• Increasing food productivity by developing crop varieties that are able to thrive in desertification-prone areas;
• Developing farming techniques that protect natural resources in ecologically fragile areas; and
• Fostering policies that utilize local knowledge and enable the poor to confront the challenges of drought and desertification.

n keeping with this approach, the CGIAR will support and take part in several activities connected with the Year of Deserts. CGIAR Centers participated in the conference convened by the International Dryland Development Commission (IDDC) in Beijing to mark the commencement of the International Year. The Desertification, Drought, Poverty and Agriculture (DDPA) Consortium, which is jointly convened by ICARDA and ICRISAT, will be engaged in a number of events. In June it will take a lead role in the UNESCO Science Conference on "The Future of Drylands." The CGIAR Marketing Group will organize System representation at a number of events throughout the International Year. A report on the CGIAR and Desertification may be accessed at http://www.cgiar.org/desertification/index.html

Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, whose wheat research at CIMMYT helped to spark the "green revolution," was awarded the National Medal of Science by USA President George W. Bush on February 13. The award recognizes outstanding scientific achievement, and is the country's highest national award for science. Borlaug has dedicated himself to agricultural research for development from 1944, and led CIMMYT's wheat research program from 1963 until his retirement in 1979. He remains a tireless advocate of international and national support for agricultural research.

The UN General Assembly, responding to a nomination by Secretary General Kofi Annan, unanimously elected Achim Steiner, the Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), as UNEP's fifth Executive Director. Steiner, a German national, succeeds Klaus Toepfer, also of Germany. Steiner was educated at Oxford University, London University, the German Development Institute, and the Harvard Business School. He has worked on environmental issues in many capacities from assignments at the grassroots level in developing countries to policy formulation in regional and international organizations. The appointment, at the level of UN Under-Secretary General, is for four years.

Gérard Matheron, who has been President of the Agropolis International Association ( Montpellier) since 2001, is the new Director General of CIRAD, the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development. CIRAD undertakes research and trials, training, knowledge sharing, innovations and appraisals. The Center has seven departments and a headquarters staff of 1850. It also has researchers based in over 40 countries. Matheron is an agronomist and animal genetics researcher, and previously worked in various management posts at CIRAD for 12 years. He is a graduate of the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon and the University of Paris IV. He is a board member of several national scientific bodies, an officer of the Ordre du mérite national and the Ordre du mérite agricole. More information may be read at http://www.cirad.fr/en/actualite/communique.php?id=388.

Anne-Marie Izac, a French national, has been selected to lead the Future Harvest Alliance Office (FHAO) as Chief Alliance Officer. She has studied in France, the USA and Australia. She received her PhD from the University of Western Australia in 1982. Since September 2005 she has been Special Advisor to the Director General of CIRAD and Coordinator of the Global Facilitation Unit for Agricultural Biodiversity Research at IPGRI. From 2003 to 2005 she was the Director of Research at CIRAD and prior to that Director of Research at ICRAF. She has also held a leading science position at IITA.

Plans are underway for a meeting at CIAT on April 26 and 27, of the Centers (CBC and CDC/ Alliance Board and Executive). The meeting will focus on substantive issues and in particular on how to implement and fund the new research priorities of the CGIAR adequately. Topics of importance to the Centers and the CGIAR System will include the Research for Development continuum, Global Public Goods, an update on the progress made in preparing the Sub-Saharan Africa MTPs, and possible new initiatives on Climate Change and Agriculture and Health.

For more information and updates on collaborative activities and research underway between the Centers and their partners, please click here for the latest Alliance Executive Newsletter dated March, 2006 .
Please click here for the 2005 FHAO Annual Report.

The usefulness of the CGIAR Performance Measurement System (PMS), piloted last year with 2004 data, is widely acknowledged by Centers, which are able to use it as a management tool, as well as by Members, for its contribution to accountability and transparency within the CGIAR System. The World Bank used the 2004 performance measurement data as a guideline for allocating part of its funding. For 2006, 35 percent of the World Bank's unrestricted contribution will be linked to PMS indicators. Several other Members have indicated an interest in performance measurement.

The lessons learned from the pilot exercise have been used to refine the Performance Measurement System. Some indicators have been dropped, and a few have been added for piloting. The 2006 process i.e. with performance data for 2005, was launched in January, and on-line data collection began in February. Performance elements will be grouped under Results, Potential to Perform, and Stakeholder Perceptions. Detailed descriptions of the performance indicators have been set out, providing for consistency in reporting by all Centers. The survey of Stakeholder (Members and Partners) Perceptions will be conducted by an independent survey research organization, GlobeScan of Canada.

The Science Council will discuss programmatic performance measurement findings when it meets in April, and ExCo will discuss initial results, including finance indicators, when it meets in May. The target for data verification to be completed and an online report made available to Centers and Members is June/July 2006.

The Performance Measurement System will continue to be refined and improved over time, as the strengths and weaknesses of indicators become clear.

The second CGIAR Senior Leadership and Media Training Program (February 26 -- to March 3) was organized by the Harvard Business School (HBS) in collaboration with the CGIAR Secretariat and was held at the HBS premises, as was the first. Faculty for the program from HBS and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government were highly reputed academics with substantial experience in the field of management and leadership training; and media trainers of the same caliber. The course was based on several case studies, including one on the CGIAR.

Although the results of the evaluation of the program by participants are not yet available, informal feedback suggests that the program was an all-round success. Evaluation of responses to the media training component of the program has been completed, and shows that 100 percent of the respondents found the training to be "relevant" or "very relevant" to their work (57 and 43 percent, respectively), and 100 percent found their attendance to be "worthwhile" or "very worthwhile" (54 and 46 percent).

The 2006 program was attended by two Board Chairs, one Director General, two Challenge Program coordinators, 14 senior Center managers, eight CGIAR Members or partners, and three Secretariat staff. Ten participants were women. This wide diversity contributed significantly to the success of the course.

The changes that the Secretariat and HBS introduced to the program (which were based on the results of the evaluation of last year's course) were well received by participants. Further improvements will be made for the next course.

As part of the continuing effort by System Office components to improve collaboration and coherence, and increase efficiency, the CGIAR Secretariat and the Science Council Secretariat had a joint workshop in Lisbon on February 23-24 - the first of its kind. The specific objectives of the workshop were to enhance understanding and co-operation between the two Secretariats and explore further ways of improving key System management processes that are handled jointly by them.

The workshop provided staff from both Secretariats with an opportunity to review their responsibilities, in broad terms, and to focus specifically on areas that need maximum attention in the interests of improved services within the CGIAR System. Discussions emphasized the practical aspects of co-operation, identified strengths and weaknesses, and laid out action areas for the future.

Action areas covered by the workshop included:

• External Reviews;
• MTP Review Process;
• Joint Communication Outputs;
• Performance Measurement;
• AGM, Science Council and ExCo meetings;
• Inter-secretariat communication.

Periodic future workshops will assess progress made and discuss further avenues for increased collaboration.

Changes at the senior staff level were required at the CGIAR Secretariat following the death of Ravi Tadvalkar and the retirement of Selcuk Ozgediz. The positions were filled through a transparent and comprehensive selection process. The Secretariat's three Team Leaders now are Fionna Douglas (Information and Corporate Communications), Shey Tata (Investor Relations and Finance) and Namita Datta (Governance and Partnerships). We thank Members and Centers who participated in the selection process.

Guy Camus, a distinguished CGIAR alumnus, died as the result of a stroke, after having earlier valiantly battled cancer.

Guy Camus had his early academic experience in both his native France, and in the USA. His eminence as a scientist was recognized both at home and abroad. The Government of France bestowed the title of Grand-Officier de la Légion d'Honneur on him, in recognition of his services to science in France and abroad.

He served as a Science Adviser to President Charles de Gaulle, and was Director General of ORSTOM ( Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer - the French Institute for Scientific and Technical Research Overseas), which today is called IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement - Institute for Development Research). Under his leadership ORSTOM built up additional competence in a number of new areas, stepping up his and his institution's engagement in African agricultural research and health research. He promoted Onchocercosis research in West Africa.

Guy Camus was TAC Chair from 1982 - 1987. In that role, his principal concerns were the quality and relevance of CGIAR research, rationalizing Center mandates to avoid duplication and overlap, and the long term evolution of the CGIAR System. He was particularly committed to focusing the efforts of the CGIAR on Africa's needs. Following his term as TAC Chair, he served on the Boards of a number of CGIAR Centers, among them CIMMYT and ISNAR.

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