From the Executive Director

The year 2019, which is drawing to a close, is a turning point in the implementation of IPAR’s second Strategic Plan 2017-2021. The institution has pursued the perspectives set by its Board of Directors aimed at contributing to the improvement of public policies. This orientation is accompanied by the development of innovative and territorialized partnerships. The formalization of collaboration, through the signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU), with the DGPPE, SAED, PREDA Saint-Louis, and the Ministry of Water and Sanitation in particular, stems from this desire. The same applies to the coordination of platforms at national (agriculture, environment), regional (Matam and Ziguinchor) and local (Podor, Senegal and Boghe in Mauritania) levels on various topics relating to land governance, food and nutrition security issues, the environment and sanitation, etc.

In addition to supporting our partners, we have continued to produce knowledge as a necessary input for
policy dialogue. And whenever necessary, we have strengthened our partners’ capacities to raise the level of
dialogue and base it on scientific evidence.

These various initiatives have earned us recognition by partner governments as a Think Tank equidistant from
stakeholders in the production of evidence and in the animation of spaces for dialogue and multi-stakeholder
consultation. In the area of the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the government’s
invitation to accompany the official Senegalese delegation to the United Nations headquarters in New York
to present the initiatives underway to achieve the 2030 goals is in itself a recognition. This year’s invitation
of IPAR, as the only institution among the Think Tanks of Africa, Asia and Latin America, to the Board of
the Hewlett Foundation to share its experience of transformation, under the Think Tank initiative, is also a
testimony of the confidence that international institutions have in our young institution!

This progress made in 2019 should not hide the challenges to be met in terms of building IPAR’s own heritage,
through the construction of headquarters, a guarantee of our institutional autonomy. The team’s concentration
on the solicitations of partners (governmental, civil society, private sector…), while being maintained, should
be more able to be accompanied by the permanent animation of the associative life to improve services to
members, such as the production of unsponsored autonomous reflections.

I would like to pay a vibrant tribute to our partners in government (Senegal, Mauritania, Niger), civil society,
including producers’ organizations, parliamentarians in the region, and donors such as IDRC, the EU, USAID,
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A special mention should be given to the Hewlett Foundation for its
renewed confidence in our institutional support by supporting our priority area of «evidence informed policy
making»! This support reinforces IPAR’s focus, which is its DNA, on how to use scientific evidence to inform
policy decisions.

In closing, I would like to thank the members of the Board of Directors for their advice and for following up
on our commitments, and to all those who continue to trust us by supporting our efforts to improve the living
conditions of people, especially rural people. I would also like to congratulate the women and men of our
Think Tank for their commitment and professionalism, with a special mention to the Director of Research, Dr.
Ibrahima Hathie, for his outstanding contribution to achieving the objectives set by our Board of Directors. I
extend these thanks to our trainees and PhD students who are committed, on a daily basis, to strengthening
the IPAR-Ker Jacques Faye model: evidence to contribute to inclusive policies to positively and sustainably
change the lives of people at the grassroots!