"Yes we did, and we will deliver!" - William Dar, ICRISAT DG

Closing Message, ICRISAT Annual Research Meeting, 04 Feb 2011, ICRISAT Headquarters, Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India

By William D Dar, Director General of ICRISAT


Dear colleagues and friends, good afternoon!

I have the feeling that something great has happened here over the past two weeks. It feels like a new ICRISAT has been born.

When we started out on 24 January, I put a number of challenges to you. They were big challenges, requiring change from business as usual. What I have observed is that you took up these challenges with full vigor. You put the Institute first, and your own comfort zone second. You trusted in change. You worked with it, rather than against it.

I congratulate all of you, because you did the right thing. Change offers new and exciting opportunities for us all. We just have to venture out of our comfort zones and look around carefully, under the bushes and over the walls. We will find treasure where we least expect it.

I´m really looking forward to sharing our progress with our stakeholders. Many of them praised our boldness in our new Strategic Plan, but they still wondered whether we would walk the talk. When they learn about what we accomplished here, I believe that they will conclude that "Yes, they did."

We set aside our own egos. We took the time to listen carefully to each other. We took a disciplined, logical approach to work planning. We began with our four Mission goals – reducing poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dry tropics.

We worked logically back from there, describing the Outcomes, Outputs, and Milestones we would need to achieve in order to reach those goals.

All the way along, we were true to our commitment to use a systems perspective and to work across Programs, not in disciplinary isolation. We internalized the new Inclusive Market-Oriented Development (IMOD) framework, and we used it as a unifying strategy so that our research activities will be complementary and coherent.

We also internalized the need to effectively communicate our work to our stakeholders so that they will continue to support us, and to even strengthen and increase that support.

I introduced to you our tagline for IMOD, to capture its essence in three simple words: Innovate. Grow. Prosper. I now realize that this tagline not only describes IMOD. It also describes this great Institution of ours. During these two weeks we have innovated, we have grown, and I am confident that we will now prosper. And it is because of your dedication that this has happened.

Of course, our challenges are far from over. They are just beginning. We´ve taken a very big first step. But now we must go back to our regions and to our partners and to our research activities and approach them in a fresh way.

Our partners will be interested in learning from what we learned. Please take the time to explain the IMOD framework and systems perspective to them, and listen to their suggestions. We need them alongside us as we travel the road ahead. As social media is beginning to show us, there is strength in numbers and in networks. We get stronger as we strengthen our friends and champions.

As this great ARM meeting draws to a close, I want to offer a special thanks to Dave Hoisington for his tireless efforts to put it all together. He really went the extra mile. He made sure that thorough consultation was built into every event on the agenda. And Dave was well served by our great RC team that helped him every step of the way. Every member of our Management Group contributed in important ways to the success of this event.

There are so many others to thank. It´s not easy putting on a two-week intensive event for 160 people. To our Housing and Food Services team, to our Visitors Services, our Security, our Farm, Engineering and Transport Services, IT, and many others – thank you. You made everybody feel welcome as you catered to so many special needs. We all feel like family now.

I asked you a question two weeks ago: "Will we deliver?" To my happy surprise, a number of you shouted out "Yes!" At that point, I knew we were going to succeed. And we proved we could! You came from far away, but you brought your ICRISAT spirit with you all the way. From Poverty Killers to Passionates, from IMOD Crazies to Dryland Transformers, we all helped each other with great enthusiasm.

So now, with the experience of two weeks of hard work behind us, as your servant leader, I want to ask you again:

Will we deliver? (Yes!)


Thank you. That´s the spirit, the culture and the mindset that will help us reach our dreams for the smallholder farmers and their families in the dryland tropics. This is the very essence of the science with a human face that we do.

With that, I now declare the 2011 Global Annual Research Meeting closed. I wish you a safe and pleasant journey home. May we innovate, grow and prosper as we fulfill our promises to the poor and the hungry of the drylands of Asia and sub- Saharan Africa.

Thank you and God bless all of you!