Organizational structure

47. In order for the envisaged co-ordinated co-operation to become functional, there is a need to develop institutional "niches" that advance such art objective within and among countries, as well as between countries and external agencies (see 35) .

48. Within any particular country "niches" could take any form according to existing institutional structures. This notwithstanding, it is envisaged that to satisfy the "integrated planning but independent implementation" principle (see 37), co-ordinated co-operation could be achieved by some kind of National Committee for Research in Agroforestry (NACRAF). These NACRAFs, or whatever form they may take, would be constituted by government organizations, from both the agriculture and forestry sectors dealing with, research, extension, development and training.

49. In each country the NACRAFs will be responsible for setting up an agroforestry development strategy (see 27-32), and should preferably be given the authority to allocate funds that encourage complementary and co-operative research projects to be implemented by member institutions.

50. Networking among, countries within each of the four ecological zones (see 30) would be ideally achieved through a Zonal Committee for Research in Agroforestry (ZOCRAF), composed of representatives from the different NACRAFs. ZOCRAFs, or any other type of organization countries decide to create, will essentially pursue the development of a zonal strategy to enhance co-ordinated co-operation on agroforestry research and development, as well as to facilitate and promote research activities to be executed by national and zonal projects. In achieving these functions ZOCRAFs would be assisted by a Permanent Secretariat, with the main role of catalyzing and facilitating interaction among the NACRAFs to reach mutually agreeable decision on common research programmes.

51. The Diagram in Fig. 1 (on page 18) shows possible organizational relationships between national and zonal committees, permanent secretariats, national institutions, and projects, as well as the type of back-stopping to be provided by the. international institutions.

52. However, it is recognized that in most zones, with the possible exception of SADCC, agreements may take considerable time for such committees to become operational. Until such agreements are reached the envisaged activities would, be promoted by the Network through co-ordinating mechanisms. This notwithstanding, consensus within and between countries on issues in the realm of functions envisaged for the committees should be achieved before common activities are undertaken.

53. The process of setting up zonal networks (see 50) would be enhanced by the establishment of regional and zonal co-ordination units. The main function of a Regional Co-ordination Unit will be that of promoting network development among countries in each of the four zones, by:

1. identifying potential network participants and leaders among national/zonal institutions;

2. assisting such institutions in designing national/zonal strategies and in the initial stages of programme development, from which relevant networking issues will be derived;

3. promoting the establishment of adequate organizational structures;

4. recruiting staff for and guiding the activities of the corresponding zonal co-ordination units; and

5. identifying sources for external funding and mobilizing such funds to assist zonal and national projects

54. At the technical level regional networking activities will be assisted by an interdisciplinary team of senior and junior scientists. The main task of this team will be to back-stop national/zonal project teams in obtaining, collating and analyzing relevant information to contribute improved agroforestry interventions at particular project sites, and in developing agroforestry research methods.

FIG. 1 : ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

55. Zonal co-ordinations would fulfil, inter alia, the following functions:

1. channelling assistance to national institutions to identify zonal priorities in agroforestry development, and to promote and facilitate concerted zonal/national technology-generating projects that overcome common landuse problems;

2. promoting zonal training to meet research needs of member countries;

3. preparing an experts' roster drawn from institutions in participating countries and other entities in the zone;

4. maintaining records of national and zonal agroforestry projects to produce and distribute relevant information;

5. encouraging effective interaction between national institutions and International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs: i.e., CIMMYT, ICRISAT, ILCA, IITA) or similar organizations.

56. Location-specific research projects will be executed by national, institutions, with technical and financial assistance being provided by the Network, as deemed necessary.

57. Projects of the problem- and component-specific type would be managed by the Network itself, through one of the International Centres operating in the region.

58. As mentioned (see 46), external agencies could act as catalysts, complement national/zonal projects, and/or execute new ones. In this context it is envisaged that such agencies could play, in principle, the following roles:

1. ICRAF - an executive one of setting up zonal networks, including recruiting and back-stopping coordinators and the research team that would support regional activities;

2. ICRAF and ISNAR - a catalytic role of supporting activities of the NACRAFs and ZOCRAFs, particularly in designing national and zonal agroforestry development strategies;

3. ICRAF and the IARCs - a complementary one of technically back-stopping location-specific research projects (back-stopping could take the form of consultants, training and/or project staff, as deemed necessary).

4. ICRAF and the IARCs - an executive one of managing zonal problem-specific and/or component-specific research projects.

59. The diagram in Fig. 2 (page 21) shows a possible organizational structure to promote and support networking activities