1. Plant Sciences for Sustainable Crop Production: Strengthening Partnerships between Europe and Developing Countries Rome, 25 to 27 June 2012

2. International Institute of Tropial Agriculture, IITA “ Working together with national agricultural research and extension systems in Africa: CGIAR’s experience ”

3. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future. Its science is carried out by the 15 research centers of the CGIAR Consortium in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations. www.cgiar.org

4. Our experience working with national agricultural research and extension systems in Africa has been very positive

5. Lessons learned. Partnerships are with both the organization and the individual

6. Parnership success needs the support of the entire organization: finance, transport, accounts, IT, farm management, etc.

7. Clear responsibilities, work plans and budgets are required for both partners. Face to face meetings are required

8. The expectation and the reality needs to be that both partners will build capacity and it is a win win partnership.

9. Some important details to remember are release of funds, transportation, available staff, deadlines for financial and technical reports.

10. Clear guidelines for technical and financial reports are important. Also, accounting and purchasing procedures need to be clearly explained.

11. Discuss the availability of land, labor, and lab and field equipment when they are required.

12. Understanding both project obligations and partner aspirations is important openly discussing the resources and staffing available to accomplish assigned tasks reduces future misunderstanding never under-fund a partner as this is a recipe for deception or failure

13. some potential partners may seek an agrement even if they lack the time, facilities or expertise to perform the duties the cost of partnership must be objectively weighed against its expected success and returns, the cost of doing business with some partners may simply be too high given available resources

14. Start planning early (at least 6 months before work will start. Partnerships will improve and grow. During the first one or two years mistakes will be made and both partners will improve

15. IITA scientists are based in 13 countries at 18 locations

16.  Raise over 20 million Africans out of poverty  Redirect 25 million ha of degraded lands to sustainable use Vision of success for IITA

17. Human resources  Attract new and young staff  Maintaining staff morale, transparency, communication  Gender equity

18. IITA Team inspired by our new Director General

19. Thank you