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More on the Alliance

 

From Alliance to Consortium
The reform proposal unanimously endorsed by the CGIAR in Maputo explicitly asked that the Alliance of CGIAR Centers take the lead in creating a new Consortium of CGIAR Centers that, working with partners and independent science and partnership advice, will be responsible for developing the strategic research agenda and programs, and for implementation for results.

Appointment of Board Chair and Vice-Chairs for the new Consortium

Click here to see current reports on different aspects of Consortium design

In 2009 the Alliance of CGIAR Centers worked together, and with partners, to design the new Consortium and develop a new Strategy and Results Framework for the CGIAR.

Consortium Board:
A process, endorsed by ExCo and the 2008 Annual General Meeting, was designed that created a tripartite group of representatives from donors, the Alliance and partners to search and select Consortium board members. This Committee, with the support of a international recruiting organization, initiated an open and inclusive nomination process for Consortium Board members in July 2009.

Over 500 nominations were received from which a long list of potential candidates was defined and from that short lists for the Chair and Vice Chair and for the remaining non-executive members of the Board.  The Alliance decided on selecting the Board Chair and Vice-Chair as the first stage and is pleased to announce the appointment of Carlos Pérez del Castillo as Chair and Bongiwe Nomandi Njobe and Carl Hausmann as co-Vice Chairs to the new Consortium Board to provide leadership, strategic direction, fund-raising support and to be the ultimate authority for a newly-formed Consortium of CGIAR Centers.

The election of the remaining six non-executive members of the Consortium Board will be done in early January 2010 and announced shortly thereafter. The first meeting of the Consortium Board is intended to be held in mid-February 2010.

Consortium Constitution and Consortium Design:
The Alliance commissioned the Boston Consulting Group to develop a first draft of the Consortium Constitution. Through various iterations and with feedback and input from CGIAR members, Centers and other stakeholders a Draft Constitution was submitted to the Executive Council Meeting 17 in November 2009 and presented to the full CGIAR membership at the Business Meeting in December 2009. Click here for more information on the Consortium Constitution.

The Alliance has now instructed its legal counsel to formulate the Constitution in appropriate legal language while maintaining the substantive content and meaning of the current text. The Consortium Board will have the responsibility to obtain international legal status for the Consortium. Up until the time this status is obtained and a host country agreement is signed, the Consortium will function as a contractual joint venture. Every Center will obtain legal advice on how the Consortium Constitution (in its legal version) aligns with its own constitution and host country agreement and will sign a Consortium Establishment Agreement upon deciding to join the Consortium.

The Boston Consulting Group was commissioned by the Alliance to provide a design of the Consortium Office including its functions (under the Constitution) and a possible location. Interviews were conducted with the Science Council Secretariat, CGIAR Secretariat, Alliance and individual Centres to develop a base-line understanding of current CGIAR System functions and activities, including the current CGIAR-wide performance management process. The design benefited from a study of analogous organizations, as well as input from the Alliance.

The Consortium Office will work under the direct leadership of a full-time CEO. The report prepared by the Boston Consulting Group recommends a focused, streamlined and cost effective operation. As part of the design of the Consortium, the Alliance also engaged Accenture Development Partnership to undertake a review and analysis of the opportunities for common administrative, financial and research support services.  Preliminary findings indicate there are clear opportunities in this area.

The results of all this work have been completed and were reviewed by the Alliance at their meeting in October 2009 and will be part of the package of information provided for the incoming Consortium Board.

Towards a Strategy and Results Framework for the CGIAR

In pursuit of developing an evidence-based and results-oriented strategy for the CGIAR system as a whole and related “Mega-Programs”, a Strategy Team engaged by the Alliance have undertaken various background research activities and consultations and developed a series of Progress Reports and a draft report.

The Strategy Team shared their draft final report in October 2009.  In this draft final report the Chair of the Strategy Team highlighted what was, in general, novel about this Strategy:

  • It is a strategy of the whole CGIAR System
  • It is results-oriented
  • It focuses explicitly on poor people
  • The strategy addresses current and emerging threats of the global food system at scale through global public goods research
  • A concept for partnership is presented at the system level, to be further developed with partners
  • A concept for inclusion of gender in research at system level is presented
  • The strategy includes important new research programs to achieve the defined results, while de-emphasizing some ongoing activities
  • The strategy integrates traditional approaches (such as commodity programs) in a systems framework
  • The portfolio of Mega Programs promises to produce untapped synergies across the system
  • A rationale for a large scaling up of the overall funding of the System is provided

For the CGIAR Business Meeting a lightly edited version of the Strategy was made available.

The Alliance has agreed the next steps for further developing the Strategy and Results Framework (SRF) and the portfolio of Mega Programs (MPs) derived from it. Based on further inputs by Centers and partners, the analytical basis of the SRF will first be strengthened, and a new version of the document produced by the end of January. This will be widely shared within the Alliance and with key GCARD partners. A face to face meeting of the Alliance, Consortium Board, GCARD global consultants, GFAR representatives and Science Council members will be held in early February 2010. Participants at this meeting will further consider the derivation of a portfolio of MPs from the SRF. The intent is to present a set of MPs for further consultations and deliberation at the GCARD in Montpellier. The inaugural Consortium Board will then finalize the SRF and portfolio of MPs, in consultation with the Fund Council, for submission to the Fund Council shortly after the GCARD. 

It is planned that the Business Plans for the MPs will be developed after the SRF and portfolio is approved by the Fund Council and submitted to the Fund Council by the Consortium Board as they become available. The phasing in of MPs should begin in late 2010-early 2011. The Alliance considers that these steps will allow us to produce a strong and compelling SRF and portfolio of MPs, supported by our partners and stake holders.

Click here for more information on the SRF.

Governance of the Alliance
The Alliance of CGIAR Centers considers that the success of its governance, management and operations resides on the oversight given by the Alliance Board (AB), and the decisions taken by the Alliance Executive (AE) that are implemented by all Centers and facilitated by the Chief Alliance Officer (CAO).

 

The Alliance Board is made up of the Board Chairs of each Center member of the Alliance. The Alliance Board provides overall governance and strategic oversight for the Alliance's activities. It is the Alliance body that has specific conflict resolution responsibilities in the event of conflict within the Alliance. A conflict resolution mechanism has been put in place by the Alliance Board to facilitate this task.

The Chair of the Alliance Board is elected by his/her peers for a two–year term.

The Alliance Board organizes and implements an orientation program primarily for new Board members of CGIAR Centers. In 2005, the Alliance Board, in partnership with the CGIAR Secretariat, commissioned a stripe review of corporate governance of CGIAR Centers and is monitoring the Centers’ implementation of the Stripe Review’s key recommendations.  

The Alliance Executive is made up of the Directors-General of each of the Centers that are members of the Alliance. It is the body which makes the decisions necessary to the smooth functioning of the Alliance. These decisions concern both programmatic and administrative issues. Click here for the biographies of the Directors-General.

The Chair of the Alliance Executive is one of the Directors General of the 15 Centers, elected for a one-year term by his/her peers. The AE Chair may serve no more than two one year terms.

The Alliance Deputy Executive (ADE) is a support and implementation organ of the Alliance. It is composed by 2 standing-committees: an ADE-Science dealing with common cross-center issues on research strategy, implementation and quality, and an ADE-Finance dealing with financial, audit and administrative compliance with the CGIAR system demands. The ADE-Science and the ADE-Finance work with Center scientists and administrative staff to implement relevant decisions of the Alliance Executive. The chairs of ADE-Science and ADE-Finance are elected yearly among committee members (one vote per center if required). The Chair of the ADE-Science is the ADE Chair.

The mission of the Alliance Office (AO) is to enable the Centers to contribute more effectively and efficiently to the mission of the CGIAR by cooperating and implementing collective activities whenever and wherever possible. The Alliance Office provides strategic advice and supports and facilitates collective activities undertaken by the Alliance. The Alliance Office works to define and enable the emergence of a clear Alliance position (speaking with one voice) on strategic issues for the CGIAR and facilitating the communication of this position to relevant stakeholders. It facilitates the implementation of Alliance decisions and facilitates links between the Alliance and other parts of the System. The Alliance Office is headed by the Chief Alliance Officer.

Summaries of Meetings

Collective Action News

COLLECTIVE ACTION NEWS is a periodical e-publication of the CGIAR’s Regional Plan for Collective Action in Eastern and Southern Africa, hosted at the International Livestock Research Institute and the World Agroforestry Centre, both of which are supported by the CGIAR.

Resources

Newsletters 2005-2006