Annual Report 2006/07 - ETH - North-South Centre North-South ...

ZIL research projectsOverviewLivestock systems research in support of poor peopleThe programme phase IV and its respective contract withSDC ended in 2006. Therefore, a series of exercises was put inplace in 2005 to find a new structure and a new topic for theZIL research priority area. It was no small surprise that aftersuccessfully going through all steps necessary to find thenew focus of our research programme, it turned out thatcontinuation with rather small adjustments was the bestand most well-accepted option. Phase V will therefore be afour-year programme with “Livestock systems research insupport of poor people” as its core theme*.From a total of eleven project proposal submissions, eightwere selected (of which six contribute to the livestock systemsresearch programme). The selection process was developedfurther, in particular with two projects that had to beresubmitted. These projects benefited greatly from thisprocess, but it was also evident to the Selection Committee(D-UWIS)that the quality of the proposals had generally improved. Thenew projects brought us new active members and new partners– in particular from Asia –, and more weight to researchon the impact of livestock on the environment, as shown inthe diagramme. This is in timely alliance with FAO’s 2006publication “Livestock’s Long Shadow”, which deals with theenormous burden that livestock-keeping has or will have onthe environment – if it cannot be improved.The Progress Fora of March 2006 and June 2007 were importantin developing the programme, the institution and thecapacity of our stakeholders. While the Progress Forumaimed at defining the new research programme in 2006, wechose the topic “Impact of research for development” in 2007.In alignment with the institutional transition, this topic setout to create awareness for impact and to foster efforts tomanage and achieve impact in terms of poverty alleviationand other developmental goals. We could start out with astudy on the projects of the ending research phase, as presentedon p. 16 ff. The project groups contributed much valuableinformation, that will be helpful to improve not only theoverall output, but even more so our institutional structures,processes, and tools. To see the new groups engage on sucha high level in the impact discussion was a real joy and hasallowed ZIL to build its livestock systems programme on agrowing, sustainable, and solid foundation which will be veryhelpful when we transform ZIL’s research programme into amain pillar of the new North-South Centre.The ZIL tradition of attending the Tropentag in Germany wasvery successful in that way. A record number of ten participantscontributed to the event in Bonn in 2006 with two oralpresentations and with four of the 600 posters.Mathias Egloff24* In spite of the programmatic focus on livestock systems, ZIL funding permits a small number of non-livestock-related projects. These are portrayed on the following fourpages. They either continue former ZIL investments in technology development (phase IV, pp. 25–26), or they relate to new complementary research areas (phase V, pp. 27–28).