Technical Advisory Committee Fiftieth Meeting, 23-28 October 1989: Report of the Meeting

Report of TAC 50 held at Washington DC, October 23-28, 1989, Alex McCalla presiding. TAC decided that a paper on research priorities for coconut by Gabrielle Persley provided a sound basis for developing future proposals on coconut research. External management and program reviews of CIAT were sent to the CGIAR with a comment, and a future review of CIAT's strategic plan was scheduled.TAC decided to circulate its interim report on expansion of the CGIAR for widespread comment in the System. It also considered issues for future activities and modes of operation, and decided to revise the CGIAR goal statement and operational objectives. The Committee established panels to review non associated centers being considered for support. Plans were made for preparation of a revised statement of CGIAR priorities and strategies to be completed by ICW 1991. TAC discussed areas of forestry research (other than agroforestry) proposed for centralization. It also discussed a paper on crop protection at IARCs, considered as an input to the review of non associated centers. TAC noted that at the completion of the first round of medium term plans, its chairman and the CGIAR Executive Secretary had jointly appointed a committee to review the resource allocation process. The committee's terms of reference and a report from TAC's own Standing Committee for Resource Allocation were discussed. The Standing Committee for External Reviews reported on plans for sequencing future program reviews with center strategic plans and MTPs, and on the Candidate Information System at the CGIAR Secretariat for TAC and Board memberships and external review panels. TAC members supported the major recommendations of the review of the TAC Secretariat