Vox Pop: What does P4D mean to you?
Elizabeth Sibale, Activity Manager, Feed the Future IITA, Malawi: P4D Week this year provides strategic guidance for development of future programs and an opportunity for knowledge and experience sharing among scientists. Due to its good research and development track record, IITA has built great trust in its donors so much so that they are willing to invest in IITA to do research, and give IITA a leadership role in research consortiums; and others are keen to partner with IITA to deliver IITA-generated technologies to farmers. The DG has a great vision, as described in the TAAT. For over 50 years, development partners have been investing funds in the agricultural sector with very little impact. Investment should be targeting the youth who can quickly absorb new ideas and new technologies to provide that positive impact in the sector. As they say “one cannot teach an old dog a new trick”; it is true with technology.
Bernard Vanlauwe, Director R4D, Central Africa hub: It was very refreshing to have a P4D Week and remind ourselves about the need to have our research products create change for smallholder famers in sub-Saharan Africa. The quality of the various presentations and contributions was very high this year. We can only be optimistic about the future for IITA as long as we can continue to put our research at the heart of agricultural development and transformation. IITA’s research products can only contribute to agricultural transformation in partnership with the many sectors that create the necessary enabling conditions for this transformation to happen. I wish IITA at 50 super research achievements.
Pamela Pali, Coordinator, PASIC – planting effective policy, based in Uganda: The program was well structured. Participation of the Board of Trustees, the DG, Management, and scientists was very interactive and impressive. P4D Week has created an opportunity for us to see the need for boundary partners from the private sector to further our novel technologies.
We can also partner with the advocacy partners to ensure an enabling policy environment for the uptake of our technologies. The DG’s vision is
excellent especially because it ensures that our research is relevant. Our science and technologies will be better communicated and utilized using appropriate knowledge delivery mechanics. This is a critical case for scaling and impact. IITA’s golden jubilee is a confirmation of more strength in many years to come.
Therese Gondwe, Technology Dissemination Specialist, Zambia: Planning this year is much better than in previous years. I love the zeal Sanginga has. His plans will be achievable especially with good team work. Our research is developing speedily and partnership is all right too but I think we need to discuss more on partnership because there are many challenges. The challenge with partnership is people have different cultures and are difficult to convince.
Rony Swennen, Banana Breeder, IITA-Arusha: It is a necessary step to think as a team together in a sitting, to use our research results for impact in farmers’ fields to accelerate the pace for improving livelihoods. There are many untapped opportunities; scientists need to push themselves to use their discoveries for application, not just for science. IITA scientists need to be strengthened, get more financial incentives, and need to start agribusiness. Research support is great. It takes vision and perseverance to succeed; hence the entire IITA team is needed. I wish IITA greater ideas for better development.
Bill Cunningham, BOT member: This is my first time being here but what I have seen and heard here this week is very positive and I think it is a very excellent idea to organize this sort of program. The arrangement in terms of presentations, organization, and the content of presentations were also impressive. The Board of Trustees from my own view is motivated with the Director General’s aspirations and accomplishments. I am very glad to be part of this.
Amare Tegbaru, Gender Specialist, Tanzania: The interface of research and delivery has come out clearly and the presentation has demonstrated both research for development and partnership for delivery. It is obvious that IITA has to strive to bring new partners beyond the traditional research partners and particularly the private sector for outscaling of proven technologies for agricultural transformation to happen. I am happy with the way the DG shared his vision and emphasis in the next 5 years which includes quality of science, resource mobilization, advanced technology and professionalism, driven transparent financial and resource management system, and staff/institutional health and well-being.
Christian Borgemeister, BOT member: This year’s P4D is in a new phase. In P4D, we are talking about delivery, about research output; it’s a quality control program and this is a continuous platform. The P4D Week program is well organized. The presentation deliveries are good. On the DG’s presentation, his vision for IITA for the next five years is a challenging task ahead. From his overview of what he has done in IITA, and with the progress so far, I think he is completely doing the right thing. He has the right partners.
The implementation is going to be a challenge because it requires lots of mind changing of people to be able to deliver so daily hard work with cooperative team work is very important. It’s a rousing time for me.
Bruce Coulman, BOT Chair: It is important to have partnership for development. I’m looking forward to hearing about the youth and agribusiness progress in the future. The debate on whether IITA research should focus on substantial farmers or on agribusiness was interesting to me, but I think both are very important.
Josephine Okot, Managing Director of Victoria Seeds Ltd, BOT member: It is a great transformation from R4D to P4D because IITA’s mission is to reduce poverty for at least 11 million Africans and also transform 7.5 million hectares of land into sustainable land for production. I think it is an excellent week–we are now moving away from just the research agenda to deliverables and that is what makes a difference to agribusiness and business to the farmers and to government that intend to engage the youth in employment. I am very passionate about what IITA is doing. I can’t wait for IITA’s 50th year celebrations; whenever I make a presentation, I always mention this and invite everyone to support us. My message and encouragement to IITA is to have a more strategic forecast to enable the Institute to cope with the new global trends and bring more transformation to Africa.
Roel Merckx, BOT member: IITA is doing something noble, so it is a learning process; there is the traditional R4D meeting which usually concentrates more on scientific findings and breakthroughs. This time it’s more about delivery of findings that have been done for the last decades. Everything is going well. It is very interesting to see that the changes introduced here are compelled to last. As a board member always participating in the annual R4D and now P4D it gives a better idea of what is going on. IITA having a new directorate for this program is very much needed. I have been working with IITA for 30 years and there are a lot of changes so I wish they continue on the good path they have chosen, the success path with the DG.
Victoria Salin, BOT member: Partnership for Delivery is a very impressive strategy that has the advantage of building on the story of IITA known across the world. I work in Texas in agribusiness and IITA is known as a strong source of research that is relevant for Africa. To aim at improving the impact, there have to be other entities involved or necessarily research institutes, so getting relationships with the private sector with national or local government is a brilliant idea. It’s a pleasure to be in this great activity. My visit here has been wonderful. I liked the chance I had to tour the business incubation facilities and meeting a great deal of inspiring people. I want to say how proud we are for IITA and they should keep up the good work, spread the message about what is needed to the rest of the world because there are people around the world that are interested in agriculture as a business.
Siva Chamarthi, postdoctoral fellow-Cowpea molecular breeder, IITA-Kano: This is my first time to attend the P4D programs in IITA. I was excited to know about IITA`s research and programs going on with the partners. Apart from this I got an opportunity to meet scientists from the different stations. All presentations are informative and IITA has made tremendous progress in terms of research and development especially in our mandate crops. The future of IITA is very challenging and I am sure it will succeed with its excellent vision and goal. I learned that some of the achievements and developments have already shown impact on poor farmers in Africa. IITA has very good facilities and network partners to deliver our outputs to the poor farmers and also to markets. The idea of an agribusiness platform will especially show good impact on agricultural transformation in the lives of poor farmers in Africa. The DG`s vision and his road map to achieve IITA goals are excellent. Because of his visionary leadership skills today, IITA stands first place among other CGIAR centers. I learned from his talk that IITA has made tremendous progress in the last five years in achieving our goals and changing the lives of poor farmers in Africa, through our research and development, agribusiness, and youth Agripreneurs, etc. I am more confident we will achieve more in the next five years.
Kayode Awobajo, Project Development and Administration Unit, Ibadan: This first P4D week was well organized and indeed a huge success. Kudos to IITA management and the organizers. The enthusiasm of partners wanting to collaborate with IITA is quite remarkable. The DG’s exemplary passion towards achieving his great vision has motivated individual staff to redouble our efforts to continue to provide the needed support in the area of performance and quality service delivery. The obvious excitement shown by IITA staff during the DG’s presentation gave a positive impression about the commitment of staff to align with the DG’s vision. I say big congratulations to the pride of Africa, DG Sanginga, and his winning team. I wish the entire staff of IITA a happy 50th anniversary celebration. I’m glad to be part of this historic event and specially appreciate all our past and present leaders who laid the foundation for these huge success stories.
David Ojo, Soybean Scientist, SARD-SC: It was really a very exciting P4D Week full of hope and aspirations. From the poster viewing, research achievements were progressive with good dissemination/diffusion potentials. However, IITA partners in agricultural transformation are not yet there. They need to be identified and well informed. Our DG’s vision for the next 5 years in IITA is progressive, transformative, and fascinating. I want to wish all IITA staff a very great, progressive, and rewarding celebration.
Livia Stavolone, Visiting Scientist: It has been an interesting week with quite a lot of information exchange. The majority of the research achievements presented at the P4D Week showed that there’s great potential for the future. I believe that the next years will be critically very productive for building partnerships. It is also very important for IITA to put more effort in product development. Let us celebrate the success built during the last 50 years and plan for even more fruitful and rewarding results for the following 50 years!
Lade Oke, Human Resources Manager, Ibadan: The P4D week was a huge success. It brought together the various aspects of IITA’s operations—science, partnerships, corporate services, and finance. It was a meeting of one large family reviewing their current status and looking into the future. The DG’s vision presents so much inspiration and energy to carry on with renewed enthusiasm. IITA at 50 is just beginning a new phase of relevance in Africa and the world. The Institute has come a long way and it is cheering that it is highly responsive to the present and future needs of its constituency—sub-Saharan Africa. We all have to keep together, work together, and steadily move towards the goal. Yes, we can!
Beatrice Aighewi, Yam Seed System Specialist: The theme of the week was very apt and it was very clear that good partnerships must be developed and sustained for a successful R4D. I observed that a lot of research work is going on and much has been achieved but publicity is low. Apart from focusing only on scientific publications, we should put our achievements in formats that development partners can use especially as we celebrate these first 50 years of achievements, and kick off the next fifty years anticipating even greater accomplishments. IITA has never had it so well and so good. Congratulations!!!
