International Potato Center (CIP) publishes Annual Report

Statement by the Board Chair

 Statement by the Board Chair

In 2015, CIP continued to gain ground on the strategic objectives set forth in 2014 to deliver impact at scale. CIP has the target of reaching 15 million people by the year 2020 with Orange Fleshed Sweetpotato. The Agile Potato for Asia Program is dedicated to coping with the impact on the poor of climate change coupled with high population density and land degradation. Significant inroads have been made in developing fast-maturing disease resistant varieties that provide flexible planting and harvesting times without putting undue pressure on dwindling land and water resources. The seed potato for Africa projects are on track to reaching CIP’s goal of 600,000 smallholder farmers in potato growing regions of Africa with high-quality seed.

Financial Performance

Despite a successful fundraising of Window 3 and Bilateral funds, CIP saw a reduction in total revenues in 2015 driven by the shortfall of funds from Windows 1 and 2 of the CGIAR Fund as compared to 2014. Total Revenue reported in 2015 was $58.5M, including $26.3M from Windows 1 and 2. The revenue in Windows 1 and 2 represent a decrease of $13.1M when compared to 2014. CIP’s Operating Expenses in 2015 are $60.4M and represent a reduction of $10.1M from 2014.

The short-term solvency indicator (liquidity), which measures the number of days of working capital to fund expenditures excluding depreciation, was 108 days as of December 31, 2015. While the long-term financial stability indicator (adequacy of reserves), which measures the number of days of unrestricted net assets, was 92 days (both of these indicators are within the CGIAR recommended norms). The indirect cost ratio of the Center was 15% for 2015. The ratio has been calculated following the Financial Guidelines No. 5, and expresses the relation between direct and indirect costs.

CIP’s financial indicators reflect that the Center is maintaining its financial health, though no institution is immune to financial or operational risk. To mitigate risk, the Board’s Audit Committee ensures oversight of CIP’s risk management policies and plans. In a much broader sense, the Board oversees Center operations in the interest of donors and stakeholders.

Leading role in Root, Tubers and Bananas CGIAR Research Program (CRP)

CIP continues its lead role in implementing the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas joined by three other CGIAR partner centers: International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and Bioversity International, plus The Agricultural Research for Development Center (CIRAD). CIP is also working in a total of 7 other CRPs including: Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security, Dryland Systems, Managing and Sustaining Crop Collections, Integrated System for the Humid Tropics, Policies and Institutions and Markets, and Water, Land and Ecosystems. Involvement in these CGIAR Research Programs allows CIP to expand its research programs to continue playing an important role in improving potato and sweetpotato production systems and the livelihoods of millions of people around the world.

Appreciation

I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Simon Best and Dr. Bir Pal Singh who finished their terms on the Board in 2015, and who served with dedication and high standards during their tenure as Board members.

On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank CIP’s donors, investors, and all CGIAR partners for their support. I also extend my appreciation to CIP’s management and staff for their continued dedication to the organization and its important mission.

With Appreciation,

Dr. Rodney Cooke
Chair, Board of Trustees

Director General’s Foreword

 In September 2015 the United Nations General Assembly formally announced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a new universal set of goals, targets and indicators for UN member states to frame their agendas over the next 15 years. For CIP, the SDGs align positively with our mission and represent a way for us to align our work for the next 15 years.

As an agriculture research for development organization, CIP’s work is consistent with 11 of the 17 SDGs and of those 11, our work is perfectly aligned with the SDGs of Ending Poverty, Eliminating Hunger, Gender Equality, Climate Action, and Life on Land. This 2015 Annual Report tells the story of CIP’s alignment with the SDGs and the impact that we have had already in doing so.

We have made progress toward achieving impact at scale on the ground across the continents where we work. In the past year CIP has seen advancements in the importance of quality seed in South America and Africa. In Ecuador, the National Agriculture Research Institute has begun producing tons of seed potatoes to ensure the quality and yield of the country’s potato harvest. They have set a goal of increasing the supply of quality seed by more than 600% by 2018. In Sub-Saharan Africa, CIP coordinated a seed systems community of practice for sweetpotato that allows scientists to share knowledge and best practices. These are just two efforts to ensure quality seed systems but are fantastic examples of how progress can be made at the both the grassroot and grasstop levels to have an impact.

2015 also marked a positive year for upstream research having an impact in the field. In promising research coming out of Uganda, CIP has seen positive results from confined field trials with late blight resistant potatoes using transgenic events with the 3 R genes in two popular potato varieties. Attaining durable late blight resistance has been a goal of potato research for decades and initial results from 2015 indicate that we are close to overcoming it.

We have been particularly honored by the interest and support for CIP’s sweetpotato initiatives shown by Nane Annan and Kofi Annan, former UN General Secretary. Collectively the Annan’s have been advocating for orange fleshed sweetpotato cultivation in Ghana in hopes of replicating the successes of CIP’s orange fleshed sweetpotato initiatives elsewhere in Africa in reducing child blindness due to Vitamin A deficiency. Through their advocacy for this star of the biofortification movement, we expect sweetpotato to grow in importance in Ghana and further scale out our Resilient Nutritious Sweetpotato program to this important country in Sub-Saharan Africa.

I am proud of CIP’s work and the contributions that we, along with many partners, make toward ending poverty, eliminating hunger, ensuring gender equity, combating climate change, and improving our environment. It is through our partners and donors that we are able to have an impact and for this I am thankful.

Gratefully yours,

Barbara H. Wells
Director General