Key Accomplishments in 2006

The Alliance of the CGIAR Centers hired its first full-time Chief Alliance Officer in March 2006. The Alliance Office, based at the International Fund for Agricultural Development headquarters in Rome, operates in a virtual manner together with the part-time senior program officer in Washington, DC. The Alliance Office works to backstop, facilitate and coordinate the work of the Alliance, including that of the Alliance Executive (AE) and Alliance Board (AB), through various activities:

• Formal ratification of the Alliance Principles and Procedures, which include mechanisms for conflict resolution. This was a watershed for the Alliance, (which is now formally called the Alliance of the CGIAR Centers), as all decisions made by the Alliance are binding for all members.
• A proposed voting mechanism was accepted by the AE to select the AE Chair, replacing the automatic rotational system based on seniority as Director General. The Chair may serve for 2 consecutive years before changing. The AB Chair is also elected and serves for 2-year periods. The two Chairs cannot be from the same Center.
• The Alliance Office put in place procedures for virtual discussions and voting by the AE and AB on issues requiring an Alliance decision or the formulation of an Alliance position. This provides the means for the Alliance to continue working in stretches between its biannual meetings, ensuring that necessary discussions take place and that decisions are made in a timely way. It thereby allows the Alliance to focus on strategic issues at its biannual meetings.
• Working with the Alliance Deputy Executive for Science (ADE-Science), the Alliance Office coordinated the decision to submit a coherent set of proposals in answer to the call for a second round of Challenge Programs and designed the process for implementation in 2007.
• In answer to a request from the Executive Council of CGIAR (ExCo), and in consultation with the CGIAR Secretariat, the AO devised terms of reference for two consultants (one legal and one financial) to provide the Alliance with objective opinions on the benefits and costs of the Centers' pooling their reserves. The AO also determined criteria for identifying the consultants and contracted them. Finally, the AO prepared the papers submitted to ExCo on behalf of the Alliance.
• The Chief Alliance Officer served as a resource person for the ExCo Ad Hoc Committee on Funding the Priorities and provided coordination, along with the ADE-Science, for analyzing the ongoing research activities of Centers under four of the system priorities. This analysis was used as input to the work of the committee.

The Alliance agreed, through the AE, to prepare and submit a proposal for a large-scale research program on climate change, agriculture (based on the FAO definition of agriculture, i.e., encompassing crops, livestock, aquaculture, fishing, forestry and agroforestry) and food security in collaboration with the global environmental change (GEC) community. In the same vein, the chairs and directors of the four international GEC programs in the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) formally approved the preparation of a collaborative research program with CGIAR Centers. The Chief Alliance Officer was requested to build the bridge for collaboration and future work with the ESSP community. The Alliance Executive and the ESSP chairs and directors agreed that the first step in preparing such a collaborative program should be a scientific workshop to identify a set of research questions that need to be addressed collaboratively and are priority programmatic areas for the CGIAR and GEC communities. The groundwork for this workshop was laid in 2006, and the workshop and follow-up activities will take place in 2007.

The Alliance leadership held two meetings in 2006, the first at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia in April, and the second at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC, prior to the CGIAR Annual General Meeting 2006 (AGM06). An additional meeting of the AE Sub-Committee for System Office Oversight took place in Paris, in conjunction with the ExCo11 meeting and the annual SO Workshop.

The AO continues to prepare and execute the meetings of the Alliance and provide meeting summaries. The AO prepared, in addition to these summaries, briefing notes and background documentation to assist the AE and AB chairs for the ExCo meeting and CGIAR Business Meeting. It also served as the focal point for the Alliance's planning and execution of Centers and Members Day at AGM06.

Collaboration with Other System Office Units

The CGIAR Secretariat, Science Council Secretariat and Alliance Office together initiated a meta-review of the governance and management of the 17 Systemwide and Ecoregional Programs (SWEPs). The review focused on the overall success of the SWEPs; their contribution to implementing CGIAR priorities and knowledge on research management; and institutional factors, governance structures and incentives. The review assess whether adequate mechanisms were in place for monitoring and evaluation.

The Alliance Office worked with the Marketing Group and the CGIAR Secretariat to bring forward a decision on family branding for the Centers and SO units, as well as designing new logos to be gradually phased in.

Finally, the Alliance Office submitted an additional 138 documents from the archives of the Center Directors Committee (the precursor of the AE) covering the years 1973-99 to the CGIAR Core Collection Database. These documents were provided by the International Service for National Agricultural Research before it closed as a free-standing Center. A complete review of the documents was initiated, with all living former Directors General contacted to clear the release of the documents. The collection is now available on the CGIAR website under Publications.