Technical Advisory Committee Thirty-Ninth Meeting, 17-25 March 1986: Report of the Meeting

Report of TAC 39 held at FAO in Rome, March 17-25 1986, Chairman Guy Camus presiding. TAC discussed the external program and management reviews of ILRAD, concluding that the center should maintain a sharp focus on theileriosis and trypanosomiasis. TAC approved revised terms of reference for the midterm review of WARDA (Annex IV). Proposed procedures for TAC's five yearly reviews of centers' programs and budgets were considered prior to TAC discussion of them with the centers at TAC 40. TAC discussed with Vernon Ruttan the progress of his study of the CGIAR external review process.TAC found itself more concerned than the impact study with the implications of formal overlaps between center mandates, and opposed to centralization of research strategy across the System. It thought the goals statement of the Bellagio strategy meeting too expansive, but agreed on the need for a new mechanism to coordinate research in Sub Saharan Africa. A paper on these and other points was prepared for the discussion of strategy at the May CGIAR meeting.TAC was informed of a Winrock conference on tropical vegetables, CASAFA's efforts to increase funding for collaboration of scientists in developing countries and industrial countries, and a USDA proposal to establish a World Plant Pathogen Database.Annexes include a list of candidate CGIAR activities, the first draft of a cross-system glossary of activities, and Future Strategies for the CGIAR, the report of the January 1986 Bellagio meeting.