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Research institutions in eastern and southern Africa are
changing the way they do business. They aim to make dramatic
impacts on poverty by doing so. In tackling problems like
climate change jointly, these institutions are aligning their
programs, sharing their services and developing research
platforms to provide easy access to people, knowledge, equipment
and innovative institutional arrangements.
The sixth and most recent consultation in a series of
meetings held over the last 12 months—including three formal
workshops and over 200 people from national institutes,
universities, other research partners and centres of the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR)—was held 24–25 May.
The integrated medium-term plan for eastern and southern
Africa that these partners are co-creating will allow them to
work effectively as one system. Their plan involves a Network
Cluster comprising the 15 CGIAR centres and their African
partners facilitated by a Network Hub operating virtually to
help the dispersed groups in the region clarify and meet their
needs. The start up plan will be refined and submitted to the
CGIAR Science Council in June 2006.
The designated focal points for centres and partners involved
in developing this plan are excited about what they are
accomplishing and the momentum they are building. The CGIAR was
an institutional innovation when it was created four decades
ago. By aligning itself with its partners to ‘unleash
innovations’—in strategy, structure, support systems, skills and
shared values—it looks to be so again. More>>
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