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2002 Annual Report of the CGIAR System
Office
Continued Development of the System Office
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) System Office (SO) further developed during 2004. The
Strategic Advisory Service on Human Resources (SAS-HR), which works
with five client centers and provides service to the system as a
whole, started its operation. In May 2004, the Future Harvest
Alliance Office (FHAO) was formed to support the Center Directors
Committee (CDC) and the collective actions of the Future Harvest
Centers, and the closing of the Future Harvest Foundation was
completed.
System Office at a Glance
The SO is a virtual organization. It brings greater coherence to
the eight service units that compose it and enhances the
performance of the CGIAR and its centers. The SO's eight units
provide a variety of services to members and centers as well as to
other stakeholders. These services fall into four broad
categories:
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Strategic planning and development. Systemwide
strategic planning, including support for the CGIAR
priority-setting and reform programs, financial management, and
strengthening of the organizational health of the system.
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Monitoring and evaluation. Oversight of
existing initiatives and activities, including individual center
research agendas, and support for performance measurement and
impact assessment of the CGIAR system as a whole.
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Communication and resource mobilization.
Communications and outreach, impact illustration, branding, and
fundraising.
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Management services. Various services related
to human resources, organizational development and effectiveness,
finance, legal issues, knowledge management, information
technology, and event planning.
Collaborative Highlights in 2004
The SO has been facilitating collaboration among its components;
the goal is to unlock synergies across units to serve the CGIAR
system more effectively. The new CGIAR Performance Measurement
System, for instance, which is being piloted in 2005, was developed
in 2004 by drawing on the services and expertise of a number of SO
units-including the Science Council Secretariat (SC Sec), the
Gender & Diversity (G&D) Unit, the SAS-HR, the Internal
Audit Unit (IAU), and the CGIAR Secretariat-as well as knowledge of
boards, the Science Council (SC) and centers. Another illustration
of the use of synergies across SO units to support the system more
effectively is the Chief Information Office (CIO), IAU, and Central
Advisory Service for Intellectual Property (CAS-IP) joint effort to
support the review of the Global Public Goods (GPG) Asset
Rehabilitation Project (i.e., the GPG database upgrade project).
This was the second such review, and it responds to the donor's
request that centers draw on SO components to help them
self-monitor the project.
Additional examples of activities undertaken in collaboration
with other SO units are in the individual unit reports following
this section.
SO Activities Finance and Key
Achievements
2004 was a year of important system changes supported by the SO.
The following report provides a detailed list of services delivered
to the CGIAR and centers, including financial inputs, and an SO
summary financial
report. In addition, each unit reported briefly on three of its
major achievements during the year in an attempt to illustrate the
wide range of activities in which each of the SO units is
engaged.
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