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

An introduction to ZILsuch as carbon sequestration, climate relevance of livestock, orthe international policy debate on biodiversity conservationand the respective convention.Other research activitiesZIL continued its SDC mandate on managing the ResearchFellow Partnership Programme (RFPP), which is presented onp. 42. The geographical distribution of all ZIL and RFPP projectsis shown on the map on p. 6.The Table on p. 62 shows all ZIL Seed Money Projects fundedsince the beginning of phase IV in 2003. In 2006 three newSeed Money Projects were accepted under the new phase Vcontract: One on the feed market in China, another one onthe effects of the European food standards EurepGap on agriculturalproducers in developing countries, both supervisedby Bernard Lehmann, as well as one on the potentially fertility-enhancingeffects of the Andean tuber plant “Maca”(Lepidium meyenii Walp) on bulls, initiated by MichaelKreuzer.Institutional development of ZIL – Towards theNorth-South Centre of the ETH ZurichIn the preparatory discussions of the new contract, SDC clearlyexpressed its demand for ZIL to become financially independentof SDC for its management operations. To achievethis objective, the most promising option was seen in amerger with the Network for International Development andCooperation (NIDECO). The new unit should be attached tothe School Domain of Earth, Environment and NaturalResources (S-ENETH). The rationale for this option was basedon two considerations: First, the merger of ZIL and NIDECOwould produce positive synergies because both units sharecommon goals and complement each other in their activities.In addition, ZIL and NIDECO presently share the samestaff in their headquarters, located in the same premises providedby the ETH Zurich.In the course of 2006, the integration of these two units waspursued through a series of meetings between the leadersand management of ZIL, NIDECO and S-ENETH. This“Steering Group” agreed on the essential elements to achieveits objectives:• A business plan outlining the future programme, structureand a tentative budget;• A Stakeholder Workshop with all members of ZIL andNIDECO and other interested participants;• Negotiations with the ETH Zurich School Board (Schulleitung)to confirm the integration of ZIL and NIDECO intothe so-called North-South Centre, and to make a substantialfinancial commitment to its programme andadministration;• Negotiation of the transfer of the position of theExecutive Manager into the core budget (Grundauftrag)of the Departments of Agriculture and Food Sciences, andEnvironmental Sciences, respectively.The “Steering Group” was an ad hoc group composed of theHeads of the Departments D-AGRL (Michael Kreuzer [outgoing]and Emmanuel Frossard [incoming]), D-ERDW (Jean-Pierre Burg), D-UWIS (René Schwarzenbach, at the same timeChair of S-ENETH), and the Presidents of NIDECO (WolfgangKinzelbach) and ZIL (Felix Escher), as well as the ExecutiveManager of both NIDECO and ZIL (Barbara Becker). Thisgroup met several times for strategic decisions and for negotiationswith the ETH Zurich School Board.The business plan suggests five programme areas of the newNorth-South Centre:• Research collaboration with developing countries andcountries in transition• Capacity development• Networking• Public relations• Strategic positioning within the ETH Zurich.8