Acknowledgements
The CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP) initiated and sponsored this learning module, which was developed jointly by IPGRI and ISNAR.
Special thanks go to Susan Bragdon, Senior Scientist Law and Policy at IPGRI, and Cary Fowler, Honorary Research Fellow and Senior Advisor to the Director-General at IPGRI, for planning and developing the content of the learning module.
Joel Cohen of ISNAR provided leadership during the initial phase to assess training needs among national genetic resources programmes, which subsequently gave rise to this module. Contributions to the content are acknowledged with great appreciation from Carlos Correa, Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Buenos Aires; José Esquinas-Alcázar, Secretary and Clive Stannard, Liaison Officer of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; Victoria Henson-Apollonio of the CGIAR Central Advisory Service on Intellectual Property (CAS); José Benjamín Falk-Zepeda, Economist at ISNAR; Emile Frison, Director of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP/IPGRI); Melinda Smale, Senior Economist at IPGRI; Michael Halewood, Legal Specialist at IPGRI; and, Paul Heisey, Economist, of the Resource Economics Division, Economic Research Service, USDA. Thanks also go to Louise Sperling, Senior Scientist, CIAT and former Facilitator of the Plant Breeding Group of the CGIAR System-wide Programme for Participatory Research and Gender Analysis for Technology Development and Institutional Innovation, for her contribution to the training exercises. In addition, members of the steering committee of the SGRP and many IPGRI staff provided comments on the content.
Zenete Peixoto França, Senior Research Officer and Leader of Learning for Institutional Innovation Thematic Area at ISNAR, developed the instructional design of the module and Elizabeth Goldberg, Director of the Documentation, Information and Training Group at IPGRI, provided overall coordination and facilitation for its development.
Thanks go to Eca Zepeda (Consultant) for preparing this module, to Mirela Zoita of the ISNAR Learning Team, to Linda Sears and Amin Kassam for editing the module, and to Annie Huie, Evelyn Clancy and Layla Daoud of IPGRI, Rome, for their important contributions to the production of this module. The assistance provided by the management and staff of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the IPGRI Regional Office for Sub-Saharan Africa in Nairobi in organizing and hosting the workshop to test the module is gratefully acknowledged.
Finally, this learning module would not have been possible without the active contributions of leaders of national plant genetic resource programmes who completed the training needs assessment and who participated in the testing and improvement of this module.
Jane Toll
Coordinator, SGRP
Law and Policy of Relevance to the Management of Plant Genetic Resources1