Vision

Part I

Chapter 2
ICRISAT'S Task Environment

As ICRISAT maps out its vision and strategy to 2015, there are a number of significant developments that must be reckoned with in its rapidly changing task environment. Foremost among these are the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, CGIAR vision and strategy to 2010, Systemwide research priorities to 2015 and the emergence of the Future Harvest Alliance. As a proactive organization, ICRISAT recognizes the influence of these developments and has considered them in charting its research direction.

The Millennium Development Goals

Background

In September 2000, member states of the United Nations (UN) unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration - a common commitment to end global poverty and suffering. Following consultations among international agencies, including the World Bank, IMF, OECD and specialized UN agencies, the UN General Assembly recognized the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as part of the road map for implementing the Millennium Declaration. Endorsed by 189 nations, the MDGs represent broad international consensus. They have also galvanized unprecedented global efforts to meet the needs of the world's poorest.

In general, the MDGs commit the international community to an expanded vision of development which promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress throughout the world. Recognizing the importance of creating global partnerships for development, MDGs have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress in the 21 st century.

More specifically, the MDGs establish yardsticks for measuring results, not just for developing countries but also for rich countries that help to fund development programs and for the multilateral institutions that help countries implement them. The first seven goals are mutually reinforcing and are directed at reducing poverty in all its forms. The last goal -- global partnership for development -- is about the means to achieve the first seven.

Summary of the MDGs

The MDGs set 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 performance indicators on poverty reduction, including income and other measures of human well-being. The goals and corresponding targets are indicated below.

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger:

  • Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day
  • Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

2. Achieve universal primary education:

  • Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

3.  Promote gender equality and empower women:

  • Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

4. Reduce child mortality:

  • Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

5.  Improve maternal health:

  • Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

6.  Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases:

  • Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
  • Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

7.  Ensure environmental sustainability:

  • Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
  • Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
  • Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

8.  Develop a global partnership for development:

  • Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory, includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction— nationally and internationally
  • Address the least developed countries' special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction
  • Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing states
  • Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term
  • In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth
  • In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries 
  • In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies— especially information and communications technologies.

Revisiting the CGIAR vision and strategy to 2010

Background

Even before the MDGs were endorsed, the CGIAR adopted a new vision and strategy in May 2000. Based on the 1998 System Review and other CGIAR reviews, TAC and CGIAR strategic studies, FAO's 2010 and IFPRI's 2020 studies, including the views of outside experts, it has the following major features:

  • Focusing strongly on poverty reduction at the regional level within a Systemwide priority setting framework.
  • Adopting modern research tools to complement or supersede conventional approaches to crop, livestock, forestry, fisheries, natural resources management, and policy and management research.
  • Articulating and integrating more closely CGIAR activities with those of its partners involved in technology generation, transfer, and utilization in regions having highconcentrations of poverty.
  • Increasing capability of NARS partners to share responsibility for research and research-related activities.
  • Highlighting an organizational design feature that augments the System's capability to respond flexibly and rapidly to changing environments.

Vision

A food secure world for all.

Goal

To reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition by sustainably increasing the productivity of resources in agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Mission

To achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through scientific research and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries, policy and natural resources management.

The above framework is comprised of a set of related goals:

1.  At the apex, a food-secure world for all is identified as the CGIAR's ultimate vision, making explicit its global scope and hence the rationale for conducting international public good research as well as the focus on benefiting the poor.

2.  To reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition, the CGIAR will pursue the goal of fostering the sustainable increases in the productivity of natural resources which are needed to improve the livelihoods of the rural and urban poor.

3.  Finally, the CGIAR's vision and goal will be realized through scientific research and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, policy and management of natural resources drawing upon its unique role and strength as a knowledge base organization.

Seven planks

Plank 1 - People and Poverty Focus: The CGIAR reaffirms its goal of sustainably reducing poverty, hunger and malnutrition of people in developing countries

.Plank 2 - Modern Science: Mobilize the new developments in social, biological and physical sciences so as to bring modern science to bear on the often difficult-to-address causes of poverty and food insecurity, related to production and institutions, that have proven intractable in the past.

Plank 3 - Geographic Priorities: In determining the relative geographic priorities, the CGIAR will give highest priority to developing a concerted approach to address the needs of people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where poverty is concentrated and growing.

Plank 4 - Regional Approach to Research: Adopt a regional approach to research planning and implementation in order to address the heterogeneous nature of the causes of poverty and food insecurity in different regions and integrate regional priorities with global priorities in international agricultural research.

Plank 5 - New Partners in Science and Development: Give increased emphasis to seeking new types of partners and using new forms of partnership to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of problem identification, research, and dissemination of research outputs for poverty reduction and food security.

Plank 6 - Task Force Approach: The CGIAR will adopt a task force approach to addressing major, clearly identifiable problems where there is an opportunity for an impact to be made and/or where there are intractable problems that need a concerted approach by multiple actors and agencies within and beyond the CGIAR System.

Plank 7 - Catalytic Role: Strengthen the role of the CGIAR as a catalyst, integrator and disseminator of knowledge within the overall global agricultural research system.

New CGIAR Systemwide Priorities to 2015

Background

At the CGIAR Annual General Meeting in 2005, the CGIAR adopted a new set of research priorities for the System. Spearheaded by the Science Council, priority setting resulted in a set of 20 research themes, bundled within five priority areas. On the whole, the priorities provide a set of specific goals for research activities around which the Centers will organize their scientific and related capacities.

The new priorities were selected on the basis of: (1) expected impact on poverty alleviation, food security and nutrition, and sustainable management of natural resources, taking into account the expected probability of success and expected impact if successful; (2) degree to which the research provides international public goods; and (3) existence of alternative sources of supply of the research and the CGIAR's comparative advantage in undertaking the research.

Part II of this document shows in detail how ICRISAT has aligned its research strategy to 2015 with the new CGIAR Systemwide priorities as shown below.

The new CGIAR Systemwide priorities

Priority area 1: Sustaining biodiversity for current and future generations:

  • Promoting conservation and characterization of staple crops
  • Promoting conservation and characterization of underutilized plant genetic resources
  • Promoting conservation of indigenous livestock
  • Promoting conservation of aquatic animal genetic resources

Priority area 2: Producing more and better food at lower cost through genetic improvements:

  • Maintaining and enhancing yields and yield potential of food staples
  • Improving tolerance to selected biotic stresses
  • Enhancing nutritional quality and safety
  • Genetically enhancing selected high-value species

Priority area 3: Reducing rural poverty through agricultural diversification and emerging opportunities for high-value commodities and products:

  • Increasing income from fruit and vegetables
  • Increasing income from livestock
  • Enhancing income through increased productivity of fisheries and aquaculture
  • Promoting sustainable income generation from forests and trees

Priority area 4: Promoting poverty alleviation and sustainable management of water, land, and forest resources:

  •   Promoting integrated land, water and forest management at landscape level
  •   Sustaining and managing aquatic ecosystems for food and livelihoods
  •   Improving water productivity
  •   Promoting sustainable agro-ecological intensification in low- and high-potential areas

Priority area 5: Improving policies and facilitating institutional innovation to support sustainable reduction of poverty and hunger:

a. Improving science and technology policies and institutions

b. Making international and domestic markets work for the poor

c. Improving rural institutions and their governance

d.  Improving research and development options to reduce rural poverty and vulnerability.

Emergence of the Future Harvest Alliance as a third pillar of the CGIAR

Background

At the AGM ‘05, the CGIAR Centers formally established an Alliance of 15 Future Harvest Centers of the CGIAR.Built on existing governance mechanisms and the collective strength of 15 Centers, the Alliance aims to enhance effectiveness and efficiency in the System and serve as an instrument of reform in the CGIAR. A framework for collective action stipulates that the Alliance should be:

  • Built on existing CGIAR practices;
  • Informed by analysis of past constraints and a new vision;
  • Built on the Principles and Procedures as the platform for best practice in collaboration;
  • Guided by the Alliance Board and managed by the Alliance Executive; and
  • Supported by the Future Harvest Alliance Office.

Mission

To enable the Future Harvest Centers of the CGIAR to contribute more effectively and efficiently to the mission of the CGIAR by pooling their resources whenever and wherever needed.

Objectives

  • Help evolve and improve the CGIAR System
  • Be a collective, unified voice for the Centers on matters requiring a common position
  • Strengthen and build on existing collective actions to create greater impact thereby strengthening the Centers' contributions to the CGIAR mission
  • Create opportunities for enhanced collective action that uses the complementary skills and knowledge of the Centers and their partners and necessary economies of scale
  • Serve as the authority for binding decisions to resolve conflicts among Centers that cannot be resolved by the Centers.

Functions

  • Develop and sustain outstanding collective partnerships between Centers and external partners.
  • Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of inter-Center collaboration and collective action.
  • Position the Future Harvest Centers to manage organizational change .
  • Resolve conflicts amongst Centers in disputes related to collective action.

Principles

  • In conforming with the mission of the CGIAR, the allegiance of the Alliance is first and foremost to the poor.
  • All Centers are to become members of the Alliance.
  • Collective action implies mutual respect among Centers and no hierarchy of Centers.
  • The Centers will ensure transparency through open communication among themselves and with partners and stakeholders.
  • The problem to be addressed or the opportunity to be sought through collective action would get the best possible team(s) or mechanism assembled from Center resources and in cooperation with partners.
  • Priority setting, on issues that would benefit from a collective approach, should be based on open, transparent practices, including stakeholder consultation with participating Centers, research and development partners and investors.
  • For areas identified as a collective-action initiative of the Alliance, each participating Center is accountable to the collective-action's mechanism, which is accountable to the stakeholders.
  • While the principle of the Alliance is to promote harmonious collective action, any conflicts that arise in this context shall be resolved among the Centers through the collective action governing mechanism as enshrined in the contracts entered into by the participating Centers.
  • For each collective-action problem to be solved or opportunity to be captured, clear specifications and reachable objectives will be identified by the AE or a cluster of it.
  • Shared standards and practices (for administration and science) will be employed whenever justified to minimize transaction costs and increase efficiencies.
  • Best practice in relation to conflicts of interest will apply to members of the Alliance Executive and Board in the conduct of the business of the Alliance.

Role of the Future Harvest Alliance in the research to development continuum

During the CGIAR Annual General Meeting in December 2005, the Future Harvest Alliance issued a paper outlining its position in the research and development continuum. The FHA views its basic function as:

1) Developing pro-poor technologies and knowledge in the areas of Centers' scientific competence.

  • Adding value to work carried out through partnerships by documenting, integrating and synthesizing knowledge at the global and regional l evels.
  • Facilitating the development, implementation and sharing of the research for development agenda through the convening power of partnerships and international status of Centers .
  • Focusing research on poverty alleviation, hunger reduction and environmental stewardship.

The FHA recognizes that upstream research and its synthesis must be connected with the downstream application of new knowledge. It is only when all links in this chain are satisfied that donor investments will deliver impacts on human development. FHA's comparative advantage lies in enabling developing country partners to appropriate benefits of the advances in agricultural research . This is achieved by collaborating with advanced research institutions and a broad range of development actors.

The FHA is not a development agency, but an applied research and related capacity strengthening alliance focused on achieving development impacts. FHA's research products consist of a range of public goods to enhance individual, community and societal capacity to benefit the rural poor.

The FHA encourages experimentation with diverse research paradigms and approaches as a means of learning . The knowledge generated from this experimentation is an important international public good. Thus research on impact, not only ex post and ex ante but on how to achieve it, is important on the development end of the continuum.

The FHA considers applied, action and participatory research to be a legitimate endeavor of Centers provided they create public goods beyond the singular event and thus advancing state of the art knowledge .

The FHA embraces the Science Council as the guardian of quality and relevance of its work . If the Science Council is to be the guardian of research relevance as well as of quality, it needs to be systematically asking whether or not there is a plausible impact pathway for research to contribute to FHA's three main objectives .

Similarly, the Alliance should promote and accompany the scaling up of their research results and systematically document and share research experiences on achieving impact (both positive and negative) and innovations in impact pathways -- such as through participatory plant breeding and collaboration with civil society organizations.

Implications for ICRISAT's strategy and resource allocation

As the foregoing discussion implies, the task environment in which ICRISAT operates has significantly changed over the past several years. The MDGs have tremendously broadened the agricultural research agenda from increasing food supply to embrace poverty and hunger reduction, environmental sustainability and social issues such as gender equality, health and nutrition.

Likewise, the CGIAR vision and strategy indicate a strong imperative for ICRISAT to adopt a people and poverty focus, mobilizing new science tools, addressing sub-Saharan Africa, follow a regional approach to research planning, establish strategic partnerships and assume a catalytic role in technology exchange. In the same manner, the new CGIAR research priorities require that ICRISAT thematic and regional strategies be aligned with sustaining biodiversity, producing more, better and cheaper food, reducing rural poverty, sustainable natural resource management, improving policies and facilitating institutional innovation.

With the recognition that ICRISAT's research strategy can contribute substantially to MDGs 1 and 8 and more indirectly to the remaining goals, it is appropriate that ICRISAT's vision and mission are in accordance with the mainstream of those of other research and development agencies though it is clear that our principal contribution would be in the area of assisting in the insurance of food and nutritional security. It is also appropriate that the attainment of ICRISAT's goal would be a substantial contribution to the attainment of the CGIAR System's overall goal. This assumes that the research carried out by the CGIAR and its partners continues to improve the livelihood of low-income people in developing countries through reduced poverty, food insecurity, eradicating malnutrition, gender inequality and child mortality, to help cope with HIV/AIDS and to foster better institutions, policies, and sustainable management of natural resources of particular importance to agriculture and poor people.

During the past decade, publicly funded agricultural research has declined by over 50%. The private sector has assumed an increasing share of agricultural research and ownership of new technologies, leading to a gradual c onvergence of the public sector's pro-poor development goals and private sector commercial interests. The emergence of global markets, biotechnology and information and communication technologies (ICTs) have a strong influence in changing the strategic direction of ICRISAT's research.

These changes are happening at a time when international agricultural research is seeing the emergence of a new set of institutional arrangements where public-private partnerships are mainstreamed towards a new vision of agriculture and rural development. Similarly, new patterns of accountability and governance are changing the role of agricultural research institutions and their relationships with civil society. Now that the solid foundations of the Future Harvest Alliance are established, ICRISAT will pursue its new vision and strategy within the collective action framework of the 15 Centers in the CGIAR. Moreover, it will undertake its research efforts, where possible, in as participatory a manner as possible. It will seek to build new strategic partnerships or alliances and generate as much community support for its research agenda as it can. ICRISAT believes that this type of people- and partner-based approach can lead to the rapid and effective attainment of its development-oriented goals.

Starting in 2006, ICRISAT seeks to effectively allocate $30 million for its new strategy and by 2015, this may be approaching $50 million. Since this is a large annual investment, ICRISAT recognizes the importance of rigorous research prioritization. This is clearly indicated in its series of rolling medium term plans (MTPs), of which the one for 2007-2009 has been prepared to pursue this strategic plan. Currently, about 20% of resources are invested in biotechnology, 28% in crop improvement, 32% in agro-ecosystems and 20% in institutions, markets, policy and impacts. This level of investment based on themes will, more or less, continue for the next three years and depending on institutional priorities and new global developments, may change over time.

ICRISAT Long Term Visioning Initiative

The development of ICRISAT's long term vision and strategy to 2015 generated contributions from all global themes and regions, whereby a total of seven regional and global research strategies evolved to reflect regional needs and global priorities. This was simultaneously complemented by an assessment of the Institute's overall strengths, challenges, opportunities and threats (SCOT) through a participatory visioning exercise designed to encompass the wide-ranging perspectives of ICRISAT stakeholders and pressing issues both in research and research management. An open-ended questionnaire was developed for the SCOT survey to elicit responses from scientists and stakeholders across all locations. The exercise provided an avenue to “think out of the box” in identifying priorities and new innovations within the context of the environmental and socio-economic-political concerns especially affecting the semi-arid tropics.