CGIAR International Centers Week, Washington, DC, October 26-30, 1998: Summary of Proceedings and Decisions

Abstract

Summary report of the annual meeting of the CGIAR held October 26-30, 1998 in Washington D.C., Ismail Serageldin presiding. Uganda joined the Group. James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, formally opened the meeting. Peter C. Doherty gave the Crawford Lecture on harnessing science to solve poverty and hunger.The principal business was consideration in working groups and plenary of the System Review, presented by panel chair Maurice Strong. A new mission statement was adopted emphasizing food security, poverty, and environment. Centers were asked to adopt congruent mission statements. The Group endorsed some review recommendations, accepted the thrust of others, and had reservations on still others. The CGIAR Chairman would organize a Consultative Council to oversee implementation of the review, and draft action proposals on remaining issues for consideration at MTM99. Annex IV lists the 29 review recommendations and the positions taken on them by the working groups.The Group adopted three statements about genetic resources, on the recommendation of the GRPC (Annexes V-VII). It banned technology to prevent seed germination in CGIAR varieties, and endorsed establishing an advisory unit on biotechnology and legal issues at ISNAR. The CGIAR approved the Finance Committee report on the 1998 financial outcome, its recommendations for 1999, and preparation of center research plans for 2000 in the context of their MTPs. Recommendations of external program and management reviews of CIFOR, and ICRAF were endorsed. The Group reaffirmed the principle of unrestricted access to CGIAR genetic resources, but was unable to reach a consensus on restructuring the governance of SGRP. The Consultative Council and TAC were asked to follow upon SGRP with the centers. The Group approved the CGIAR logical framework.Annexes: Agenda and lists of documents and participants. Some pages numbers of the document are incorrect, but the text is in order.