The past year was certainly a "year of change" for IFPRI. Following a new strategy for the Institute which was developed by the management in consultation with the Board, the organization carried out a process of restructuring with a view to improving its quality of research, strengthening the capacity for research in developing countries, and setting up mechanisms that ensure greater impact of research on policy. In a major development during the year, IFPRI was entrusted by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) with bringing the key programs of the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) under its governance. The restructuring and the expansion during the year have provided further thrust to the decentralization of IFPRI's operations.

An important part of the restructuring exercise at IFPRI was the creation of a new division focusing on Development Strategy and Governance with a view to encouraging an integrated approach to study the implications of research on food and agriculture systems for policies and institutions. The Division has begun its work in full earnest and is expected to facilitate enhanced impact by offering policymakers and their advisers new insights into the consequences of policy choices. The restructuring exercise is also designed to enable researchers at IFPRI to better focus on the development challenges emanating from the external economic environment, particularly in the context of the World Trade Organization negotiations. The integration of the ISNAR program into IFPRI has been both exciting and challenging. The new ISNAR Division is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, greatly accelerating the pace of decentralization at IFPRI, and putting us within ready reach of partner institutions in Africa. The program is global, and focuses on institutional change, organization and management of agricultural research, and science policy. The Board has established a Program Advisory Committee--chaired by a Board member--to guide the development of the program of the ISNAR Division.

IFPRI has also opened new offices in China, Costa Rica, and India. These offices will carry out research drawing on the resources of the different divisions at IFPRI and research skills in the region, and will be different from the project-specific offices that exist in a number of other countries. IFPRI's efforts at combating the scourge of "hidden hunger," the inadequate level of micronutrients that afflicts over 2 billion people in the world, received a major boost in 2003 with a grant of $25 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the HarvestPlus program that IFPRI co-leads with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The oversight of this large CGIAR Challenge Program is being carried out by a Program Advisory Committee set up by the Boards of the two centers and includes members of both Boards and a number of eminent experts.

During the past year IFPRI played a strong supportive role in the efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals, especially by providing background analyses and reports for the "Hunger Task Force" to develop programs that facilitate the achievement to reach the goal to cut hunger in half by 2015. While congratulating the IFPRI team on the many activities related to research and policy impact that are described in this report, it is important to remember that IFPRI has a lot more challenging work ahead in facilitating the attainment of food and nutrition security and poverty alleviation.