CGIAR International Centers Week, Washington, DC, October 28 - November 1, 1996: Summary of Proceedings and Decisions

Summary report of the annual meeting of the CGIAR held October 28 to November 1 in Washington, DC, Ismail Serageldin presiding. The meeting consisted of four parts. First, a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Group, attended by guests representing the history of the CGIAR. It was addressed by: World Bank President James Wolfensohn, Crawford Lecturer Maurice Strong, several past CGIAR chairs, a former chair of TAC, Gurdev Khush of IRRI, winner of the 1996 World Food Prize, and the CGIAR Chairman. ICRISAT received the King Baudouin Award for work on pearl millet. The first Chairman's awards for scientific excellence were made.Second was a center forum on regional research challenges. Third, the first meeting of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), chaired by Fawzi al Sultan, President of IFAD. GFAR agreed on a Declaration and Plan of Action for Global Partnership in Agricultural Research.Fourth, the CGIAR business meeting, which welcomed South Africa as a member. The Group endorsed reports from GFAR, its NGO and Private Sector Committees, and the FAO and IFPRI on preparations for the World Food Summit. It saw need for greater representation of partners on TAC and center boards. It also accepted a report from the task force on Central and Eastern Europe, and the Former Soviet Union. It heard from the Genetic Resources Policy Committee, and from FAO on a technical conference on plant genetic resources. It accepted as an interim statement guiding principles on intellectual property protection drafted by the centers.TAC's proposals for medium term planning were approved. The Group adopted a financing plan of $325 million for 1997, proposed by its Finance Committee. It accepted proposals of a stakeholders group for a system review, chaired by Maurice Strong, to start in 1997. It also approved reports from the Oversight and Finance Committees, TAC, CBC, CDC, PARC, and IAEG.Annexes: program, list of documents and partici