From Skepticism to Interest – Mindsets are Changing around the CGIAR Reform

As the thinking on the structure and way of doing business in the CGIAR has evolved over the course of the reform process, so have opinions and mindsets about the proposed changes. A succinct video tracks how views have changed from various perspectives – donors, researchers, partners and other stakeholders.

Preparing for ExCo-17

Dear Colleagues,
The next Executive Council Meeting (ExCo-17) will soon take place on November 3-4, 2009 in Rome. In preparation for the meeting, there’s been a lot of activity across the System to get ready for this important milestone in the change process. In addition to preparing new updated drafts of the primary  documents of the new [...]

TMT Journal Update #10 from CGIAR Chair Katherine Sierra

Dear Colleagues,
The Transition Management Team (TMT) recently met in Washington, DC, to continue to move implementation of the CGIAR reforms forward. I know the reform effort has been a long road, but we are getting closer and there are signs of significant progress that I am excited about:

We are much closer to having a Consortium [...]

A Question and Answer Dialogue with the TMT in Washington, D.C.

On September 10th, 2009, in conjunction with Transition Management Team (TMT) meetings in Washington, D.C., the CGIAR Secretariat staff had the opportunity to engage TMT members in an informal Q&A dialogue on the CGIAR reforms under way. Here, we share some excerpts from the conversation.
1. How does the Transition Management Team envision the implementation of [...]

TMT Journal Update #9 from Mark Holderness

Dear Colleagues,
The Transition Management Team held a brief teleconference to prepare for its face-to-face meetings later this week in Washington, D.C. We discussed the need to continue to engage stakeholders in the reform process to ensure that we understand their concerns and the key issues that must be resolved in the coming months. 
 
The reform process [...]

TMT Journal Update #6 from CGIAR Director Ren Wang

Dear Colleagues,
As our Chair Katherine Sierra noted in the last TMT journal update, the Executive Council (ExCo) gave a green light at its June meeting for implementation of the CGIAR Change Initiative to continue.  I was very pleased with this signal, which came with an acknowledgement that much work remains to be done. The Transition [...]

A Dialogue with Civil Society Organizations

By Tom Remington, Principal Agriculture Advisor, Catholic Relief Services
Source: CGIAR Embracing Change E-Newsletter, June 2009 Issue
In late April, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) organized a half day CGIAR and Civil Society Organization (CSO) dialogue in Washington DC. The event was co-hosted with InterAction, a coalition of US based international non-governmental organizations, and followed the CRS Agricultural [...]

Lessons Learned from Developing Mega Program “Mock-Ups”

By John McDermott, Deputy Director General, International Livestock Research Institute
Source: CGIAR Embracing Change E-Newsletter, June 2009 Issue
A group of the CGIAR Alliance Deputy Directors General gathered in April to design three mock-ups of what the mega programs of the new CGIAR Consortium might look like and how they might operate.** In developing the three mock-ups, [...]

TMT Journal Update #4 – from Mark Holderness

On behalf of the TMT you have already received Journal Updates from Steve Hall, Jonathan Wadsworth and Katherine Sierra – now it is my turn to fill you in on our latest work. In our most recent meeting via teleconference on Thursday, May 14th , our conversation focused on three items: 1) outcomes of the [...]

Stakeholder reactions: Catherine Coleman

CIDA is one of the CGIAR’s longest-standing donors. CIDA Senior Analyst Catherine Coleman explains why she is now more encouraged about a continuing relationship:
Although we indicated we were not sure about contributing to the Fund, this wasn’t based on scepticism about the reform process, but rather on a lack of information on how this would [...]