The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

ABOUT ILRI

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works for better lives through livestock in developing countries. ILRI is co-hosted by Kenya and Ethiopia, has 14 offices across Asia and Africa, employs some 700 staff and has an annual operating budget of about USD80 million. ILRI is a CGIAR research centre, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services. Its research is carried out by 15 CGIAR centres in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.org Peter Doherty, a former member of the ILRI Board of Trustees and co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, serves as ILRI’s patron.

VISION, MISSION AND STRATEGY

ILRI envisions a world where all people have access to enough food and livelihood options to fulfil their potential. ILRI’s mission is to improve food and nutritional security and to reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestock—ensuring better lives through livestock. ILRI's strategy 2013–2022 was approved in December 2012. It emerged from a wide process of consultation and engagement.

ILRI's strategic objectives

With partners, to develop, test, adapt and promote science-based practices that—being sustainable and scalable—achieve better lives through livestock.
With partners, to provide compelling scientific evidence in ways that persuade decision makers—from farms to boardrooms and parliaments—that smarter policies and bigger livestock investments can deliver significant socio-economic, health and environmental dividends to both poor nations and households.
With partners, to increase capacity among ILRI’s key stakeholders to make better use of livestock science and investments for better lives through livestock.

ILRI’s second 10-year strategy incorporates a number of changes, many based on learning from the previous strategy (2000–10, initially produced in 2000 and modified in 2002), an interim strategy (2011–12) and an assessment of the external and internal environments in which the institute operates.

VISION, MISSION AND STRATEGY

ILRI's strategic objectives

With partners, to develop, test, adapt and promote science-based practices that—being sustainable and scalable—achieve better lives through livestock.
With partners, to provide compelling scientific evidence in ways that persuade decision makers—from farms to boardrooms and parliaments—that smarter policies and bigger livestock investments can deliver significant socio-economic, health and environmental dividends to both poor nations and households.
With partners, to increase capacity among ILRI’s key stakeholders to make better use of livestock science and investments for better lives through livestock.

VIETNAM

ILRI in East and Southeast Asia has chosen Vietnam as its regional hub for research and investment. ILRI has several research projects targeting the Mekong region, making Vietnam a logical choice for the location of its regional office, and ILRI’s long-term plan and commitment to sustain the gains from its engagement with its local partners makes Vietnam one of its important action area countries. ILRI has been working with partners in Vietnam since 1999. By 2006, the institute had already established its presence in the country and was hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). In 2007, ILRI established its own office and gradually increased its research portfolio and personnel in Vietnam. ILRI in Vietnam works on significant research topics that include animal health and food safety, adaptation to risks of climate change, emerging infectious diseases, improved feeds and forages, animal genetics and livestock value chains. ILRI in Vietnam focuses on two priority research areas: (1) sustainable intensification of mixed crop-livestock systems and (2) mitigation of risks inherent in changing agricultural systems. A CGIAR research centre, ILRI participates in three CGIAR research programs in Vietnam and the Mekong region: Livestock; Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS); and Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). In Vietnam, ILRI partners with a number of institutions, such as the government ministries, universities, national research institutes, development agencies and the private sector, to plan and implement the research programs.