IRRI’s Board of Trustees is proud to see that the Institute, in its 46th year, has withstood the test of time, growing ever more energetic with the years. Although initially set up mainly to accelerate the production of rice at a time when world food reserves were dangerously low, IRRI has transformed into an institute that has proven itself able to adapt to the changing physical, technological, and socioeconomic environment that we see today, and to continue to make all-important contributions to maintaining the world’s food balance and reducing poverty and hunger.

Rice is becoming ever more significant in human nutrition. It continues to be—as a regional television channel put it—the lifeline of Asia, reliably feeding its poor. At the same time, it is rapidly growing in importance in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the Board endorses wholeheartedly the conclusion herein that IRRI is among the best investment instruments in the world for helping the poor and the hungry.

The Board invites all stakeholders in rice—development partners, scientists in advanced research institutes and national systems, private companies, interested members of civil society, and not least IRRI’s beneﬁciaries—to consider this strategic plan and how you might contribute to achieving its goals for the beneﬁt of poor rice farmers and rice eaters around the world. The rewards are great, not only in helping to end poverty, minimize the negative effects of climate change, and improve nutrition but also in achieving the stability and well-being of society when these conditions are met.

Preface

IRRI’s previous strategic plan, entitled IRRI Toward 2020, ambitiously sought to carry the Institute over a 25-year period. The present plan endeavors to take the Institute over a more modest 9 years, joining the world in seeking to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Nonetheless, much of the work outlined here will extend beyond 2015.

We describe herein the changing world that has rendered the previous plan out-of-date because the changes are happening so fast and have by no means stopped; the world of rice in particular is in a rapid demographic, technological, and social transition (Chapter 1). We then describe the broad foundation of successful collaboration in which IRRI has continued to work with many institutions across disciplines, localities, and ecosystems (Chapter 2). This has positioned the Institute to respond with substantial optimism to both the known and as yet unknown new challenges implied by these ongoing changes toward helping achieve the MDGs, especially the three related to hunger and poverty, environ-mental sustainability, and nutrition and health.

The plan that we present has ﬁve strategic goals that contribute to addressing each of the MDGs. Together they represent a changed role for IRRI, perhaps one of the most signiﬁ-cant changes in its 46-year history (Chapter 3). IRRI will shift from ﬁlling the rice bowl to ﬁlling the purse, from general crop management to environmentally sustainable manage-ment and adaptation to climate change, and with greater concern about health aspects and the nutritional value of rice. It will send our scientists more into country ofﬁces around Asia and for the ﬁrst time since the late 1990s into the newly prominent rice ﬁelds of sub-Saharan Africa. IRRI will address not only rice but also ways in which farmers can diversify their crops to improve their incomes.

This shift in perspective does not mean a shift away from our core expertise and core values. Rather, it means that our targets, and how we measure the success of what we do, will be different. IRRI will continue to apply its expertise in germplasm development, natural resource management, social sciences, and information management to tackle important problems and strengthen national systems.

The plan involves some changes in our program structure (Chapter 4) and how we allocate our resources (Chapter 5). In the somewhat unsettled times within the CGIAR, we are certain that the Institute has mechanisms in place to ensure proper governance and management of its resources (Chapter 6).

We hope you will share our enthusiasm and optimism in these bold steps that we feel are required to meet the needs of IRRI’s mandated beneﬁciaries, especially the 750 million desperately poor rice farmers and consumers in developing countries worldwide.

ROBERT S. ZEIGLER

Director General>

Suggested citation:

IRRI (International Rice Research Institute). 2006. Bringing hope, improving lives: strategic plan, 2007-2015. Manila (Philippines): IRRI. 61 p.

Foreword

Preface