TAC Quinquennial Review of ILCA, 1982

Abstract

Report of the TAC quinquennial review mission to the International Livestock Center for Africa (ILCA). Document includes a letter from TAC Chairman Ralph Cummings to CGIAR Chairman Warren Baum transmitting the report with TAC's comments, and transmittal from review panel chairman Sir John Crawford to Ralph Cummings. The report was discussed at TAC 27 and presented at the CGIAR meeting in May 1982. Noting the unusually broad geographic spread of ILCA operations across Africa, the panel stressed the need to develop protocols for component research to be used by each of ILCA's zonal programs in identifying constraints that limit productivity. The strong orientation toward systems research explicit in ILCA's mandate required the capacity to understand systems in terms of their components (such as animal health and pasture management). The reviewers assessed each of ILCA's four zonal programs, and observed significant variation in the quality of research underway in these programs, as well as in how ILCA's mandate was interpreted.Research programs managed at headquarters, including a collaborative network on trypanotolerance involving ILRAD and several African national programs, were also assessed. Areas felt to warrant greater attention or new initiatives were animal traction, water use by grazing ruminants, and crop-legume rotations used in livestock. Needed strengthening of headquarters scientific capacity would require appointing six additional senior scientists both to do research themselves, and to administer and monitor research programs. Other recommendations addressed the roles and responsibilities of the director general and board of trustees, the need for clear operational procedures to be used by ILCA's zonal programs, and development of cooperation with other centers.