Technical Advisory Committee Seventy-First Meeting, 26-28 November 1996: Report of the Meeting

Report of TAC 71, held at ILRI in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 26-28, 1996, Don Winkelmann presiding. The TAC Chair reported on a special meeting of a TAC subcommittee in September to consider the 1997 plans of the centers and their implications for CGIAR priorities, in the light of a funding shortfall. In the course of discussing TAC recommendations with the Finance Committee and the Group at ICW96, issues had arisen about the respective roles of TAC and the Finance Committee. TAC wrote a letter to the CGIAR Chairman asking for clarification on respective roles in dealing with financial plans.TAC endorsed a proposal for a systemwide program on participatory research and gender analysis submitted by CIAT, CIMMYT, ICARDA, and IRRI. It is a report on priorities for research on marginal lands. It decided on further study of a conceptual framework, the incidence of poverty and natural resource degradation, and assessment of useful work that could be undertaken in these areas by the CGIAR.TAC discussed the experience of panels that had visited IIMI, ICRAF, IITA, and WARDA to observe directly the preparation of center medium term plans. The TAC Chair wrote to center directors clarifying the information panels were seeking. The Chair reported on progress in reclassifying CGIAR activities. TAC discussed a report of a center workshop on the ecoregional approach to research. TAC also discussed future reviews of several centers, and received additional reports covering, among other topics, GFAR, the World Food Summit, the report of the CGIAR committee for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the Systemwide Program for Water Management.