Report of the Ninth Meeting of the CGIAR Finance Committee

Report of the ninth meeting of the CGIAR Finance Committee, held in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 19, 1996 in conjunction with the CGIAR Mid Term Meeting, 1996. The results of the Committee meeting were reported to MTM96 by the chairman, Michel Petit. The formal minutes, which included the outcome of discussions in the CGIAR, were circulated later.The Committee focused on results in 1995, 1996 financing in the light of a prospective $20 million shortfall, and the funding requirements of the 1997 research agenda. The Committee acted to find additional support on the order of $8 to $9 million to IARCS expecting the most serious funding gaps in fiscal 1996. The Committee proposed, and the Group adopted, modifications to financing arrangements, notably the decentralization of financing decisions to centers and donor members, with the World Bank shifting from partial gap filling to reinforcing member support.Annex 1 contains a summary of the new arrangements, and includes a proposal by the German delegation which was not adopted, and an overview of the annual process of financial decisionmaking in the CGIAR