Consortium Board Meetings

Consortium Board Meeting: 1-3 March 2010; Nairobi, Kenya

The Board of the Consortium of the CGIAR Centers held its first meeting at ILRI's Headquarters in Nairobi from 1-3 March 2010. The Board Chair, Carlos Perez del Castillo, was joined by five Board members, Mohamed Ait-Kadi, Tom Arnold, Ganesan Balachander, Lynn Haight and Carlos Sere (standing in for Andew Bennett, the Alliance representative on the Board ¹

The Board met for two days, followed by one-day visits to other CGIAR centers and their partners in Nairobi. In those two days of meetings, the Board made a number of key decisions.

The Board initiated the process for the recruitment of the CEO.
The Board narrowed down to five the list of cities to be selected as the site for hosting the Consortium Office - Addis Ababa, Delhi, Montpellier, Nairobi and Rome, and will start soon the process of negotiations with their respective governments.
The Board approved their Rules of Procedure (subject to approval from Board members not present)
The Board acknowledged that we will assume leadership for communications for the entire CGIAR system
The Board approved the Consortium 2010 workplan

With regards to the Mega Programs, the Board worked on the basis of the agreements reached at the Fund Council discussions with the Alliance leadership in Brussels on February 24. At that meeting, at which the Consortium Board Chair was present, there was endorsement for the fast tracking of certain MPs, on the understanding that this will not be at the expense of others: all MPs that conform with the Strategy and Results Framework (SRF) will be considered by donors. A very tight and ambitious new timetable was agreed for the development of MPs, approval by the Consortium Board and submission to the Fund Council. In order to facilitate the work of the Centres engaged in the development of MPs, including those selected for fast tracking, the Consortium Board defined initial criteria that they will use in their final selection and approval of MPs.

The summary report of the decisions made by the Consortium Board at their inaugural meeting are posted below as an attachment.

Consortium Board and Alliance Meetings: 27,31 March and 1 April 2010; Montpellier, France

The Consortium Board met with the Alliance as part of the preparations for and to discuss the outcomes of the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development.

The key outcomes of this meeting were:

Confirmation of the criteria that the Board will use to look at the proposed Mega Programs
Confirmation of the Mega Program portfolio and those Mega Programs that will be fast tracked to present to the Fund Council in July 2010 for a funding decision
Decisions on integration of the Challenge Programs into the Mega Programs
Decisions on the proposed platforms
The timetable and next steps post-GCARD for the actions associated with preparation and submission of the Strategy and Results Framework and the Mega Program portfolio

A report of the decisions made at the meetings are attached below.

[1] Apologies from other Board members: Gebisa Ejeta, Ian Goldin, Carl Hausmann (Vice-Chair), Bongiwe Njobe (Vice-Chair) and the Fund representative. The Board was supported by the interim Consortium Office (Anne-Marie Izac and Fiona Chandler).