Combating COVID-19-induced shortfalls: IITA reveals strategy to strengthen financial health and secure research goals
To manage potential funding shortfalls due to the global COVID-19 crisis, IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga has outlined options through which the Institute can strengthen ongoing research and ensure sustainable planning as well as strategic resource mobilization.
After strenuous consultations with different stakeholders, including staff and donors, Sanginga communicated the decisions during a virtual town hall meeting with Institute staff in all locations.
With analysis based on cashflow projections and scenario mapping, the DG explained some of possible outcomes of different scenarios that include reduced budgets and financial deficits throughout this pandemic period. Sanginga said that the Institute is devising ways to ensure that all staff keep their jobs and that the vision of transforming agriculture in Africa is sustained. He reiterated that IITA staff continue to be the Institute’s most important assets and their health and well-being and that of stakeholders like farmers and farming communities depending on IITA’s research remain a priority.
