2005 System Office Annual Report



System Office

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) virtual System Office (SO) is composed of eight units:

• Central Advisory Service-Intellectual Property (CAS-IP)
• CGIAR Secretariat
• Chief Information Office (CIO)
• Future Harvest Alliance Office (FHAO)
• Gender and Diversity Program (G&D)
• Internal Audit Unit (IAU)
• Science Council (SC) Secretariat
• Strategic Advisory Service for Human Resources (SAS-HR)

All units work together to provide a variety of services to members and Centers as well as to other stakeholders in the following areas:

• Strategic planning and development
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Communication and resource mobilization
• Management services

Collaborative Highlights in 2005

SO units have been working closely together on some of the new initiatives launched in 2005.

• The new pilot Performance Measurement System was launched and completed, for instance, through close collaboration among the CGIAR Secretariat, SC Secretariat, and IAU. A paper describing the lessons learned from the pilot was subsequently drafted for the CGIAR Executive Council's consideration.
• A second key initiative has been the development of the Scientific Knowledge Exchange Program (SKEP) with six international research-oriented agribusiness companies. FHAO and the CGIAR Secretariat worked closely with the CGIAR Private Sector Committee (PSC) in the design and launch of SKEP. The first staff exchange-a senior private sector research manager assigned to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) took place in August 2005. In addition, both units worked with the PSC in organizing the September 2005 CGIAR-Private Sector High-Level Meeting in Washington, DC. The meeting resulted in the initiation of the development of a joint work plan.
• The IAU, CIO, and G&D continued to work on a series of Good Practice Notes in the areas of human resource management and information security.

Additional examples of activities jointly undertaken by SO units are found in the individual unit reports offered on the left-hand side of this page.

2005 Activities, Finance, and Key Achievements

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.