Second External Management Review of IFPRI, 1990

Abstract

External management review of IFPRI conducted in 1990 by a panel headed by William Gormbly, Jr., concurrently with an external program review. The document contains a comment and transmittal from the CGIAR Executive Secretary, the response of the IFPRI Board of Trustees to both reviews, and a transmittal from the panel chair. The EMR contains the assessment and recommendations of the EPR. An extract from the summary of the CGIAR discussion of both reviews is found in the program review document. The review report described a crisis in IFPRI management that occurred between the first meeting of the panel and completion of the report, including the resignations of the Board Chair and the Director of the Institute, and the departure of other key staff. IFPRI was now a center in transition. The panel probed what it thought were the underlying causes of the crisis, and found that some of these had been present for a long period. It focused on the failure of the Board to exercise its authority, the use of a management style appropriate to a smaller institution, weak middle management, the lack of comprehensive personnel policies, and of a board approved strategy. IFPRI was described as unable to decide whether it was an academic research institution, or a mission-oriented policy institute.The report laid out a recommended approach to institutional change and made a number of specific recommendations. It addressed the role of the board, the appointment of a long term successor to the director, addition of a deputy director for research and development, the responsibilities of the research program directors., and the appointment of a director of finance and administration. Other recommendations concerned the system for management of human resources, and the adoption of a program budget system. Agenda document at TAC 53 and the CGIAR meeting of May 1991.