TAC CHAIR’S REPORT
Presented by Donald Winkelmann, TAC Chairman, at MTM98, Brasilia, on 29 May 1998

It is my pleasure to present to you the TAC Chair’s report. In doing so I will emphasize activities currently underway that bear fruit during the course of this year, and will, as well, mention a handful of themes that are destined for delivery to the Group in 1999.

For the immediate future, three studies now underway will have been completed and readied for presentation to the Group at ICW98. One pertains to Latin America and the Caribbean and features working relationships between the CGIAR centers, national programs, and regional organizations.

A second study focuses on marginal lands. TAC expects to receive this study in three parts at its September meeting. One relates to what is known about the relationship between poverty and marginal lands and between poverty and land degradation. A second brings into focus work aimed at better relating land classification schemes to productivity. This effort is being supported by a 20 person panel of experts engaged in an e-mail network on soil and water degradation as these relate to food security. The third, in the hands of our former TAC colleague, Ted Henzell, integrates what TAC has to say about marginal lands. Among other things, this synthesis will support TAC’s review and evaluation of the eco-regional approach to technology development, which will get underway during the third quarter of this year.

The third study, scheduled to be delivered to the Group at ICW98, is aimed at developing a log-frame for the CGIAR with all of its attendant accouterments, including indicators and milestones. I have presented interim reports on this in the past along with information about the range of stakeholders who have participated in the effort and of the strong support given by Germany to the undertaking. A small working group will carry the report a step further in late July. Centers will then comment again before TAC assesses the draft proposal at its September 98 meeting. The proposal will be presented to the Group at ICW98. I want to add that, while center representatives have been actively involved since the beginning, their role remains critically important because their own frameworks and that of the System must mesh well. My colleagues in TAC, at the TAC and CG Secretariats, and the roughly 30 others who have been directly involved remain optimistic about the outcome. As well, we remain convinced of the importance of such a tool and the 9 April press statement by the DAC Chair reinforces our sense of urgency.

Miguel Altieri has already reported on this week’s meeting between the NGO Committee and TAC Committee members, so I will not go further on that theme.

Underway now are several other studies and reviews. EPMRs are underway at ICRAF and soon to be initiated at ICLARM and ILRI. The Panel conducting CIFOR’s EPMR completed its work on the main phase in March. Planning and negotiations are underway for the reviews of ICARDA, WARDA, and IIMI, and we will be calling on you for impressions about specific issues to be addressed. The first review of the Systemwide Genetic Resources Program is underway with Jaap Hardon leading the panel. Several of you will have talked with Dr. Hardon and his colleagues in the course of the last few days. We sense that this effort will have implications beyond the Program itself. With respect to such reviews of the quality and relevance of science, TAC believes that recent efforts reflect a positive trend; even so, we believe we can refine the process further and we have opened discussions with centers on ways to do that.

On the near horizon is a workshop with GRID-Arendal, supported by the Government of Norway and TAC. It is focused on what can be known about the locus and level of poverty given existing data from whatever source. This is aimed at reinforcing TAC’s work in priority setting. It will also support the broader pursuits underway within the centers dealing with poverty, especially CIAT and IFPRI, in conjunction with their work for IAEG. Second, know that we have scheduled for July an exploratory meeting with specialists on non-market frameworks for organizing and implementing cooperation or collaboration. Along with the CGIAR Secretariat we expect to move from the exploratory effort to a late 1998 workshop. This is one of TAC’s strategic themes and an effort much applauded by the centers as they and colleagues seek to be efficient in the pursuit of partnerships. Third, and, carrying on with this meeting’s discussion of global climate change, we are looking forward to a report by Dr. Alison Withey, who was commissioned by USAID to inventory major CGIAR efforts related to the mitigation of climate change and adaptation to its effects. We now hope to supplement that report with some systematic/formal insights into the CGIAR’s indirect contribution to the mitigation of GCC.

The next TAC meeting is scheduled for September 20-26 at CIMMYT. A major commitment will be made to reviewing the outcomes of center/member bi-lateral negotiations with the aim of assessing their congruity with the Group-endorsed MTPs.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, let me ask all of you to join me in saying good-bye to two stalwarts of the TAC Secretariat, both destined to new challenges in other parts of the CGIAR. Guido Gryseels will join the IAEG in August, where he will head up their Secretariat, and Amir Kassam will join WARDA as Deputy Director General of Programs. This is an unhappy state of affairs for TAC but a boon for the system as a whole. Join me in saying thanks for jobs well done and in wishing them well in their new incarnations. And I’ll close with a plea that members give careful attention to our call for nominations of candidates for the vacant posts.