"The Committee continues to be impressed by the superb quality of the
work of the OED evaluation team... This very professional OED work
needs wider dissemination and follow up. It reflects several years of
research that can guide those making decisions from now on. The
dissemination of the findings and lessons... could be pursued jointly
by President Wolfensohn and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan." The
external Advisory Committee consisting of Rolf Luders, Professor and
Editor, Cuadernos De Economica, Pontifical Catholic University of
Chile; Wolfgang Reinicke, Director, Global Public Policy Institute and
Managing Director, Galaxar S.A., Geneva; Nafis Sadik, former Executive
Director, United Nations Population Fund; and Adele Simmons, President,
The Global Philanthropy Partnership and former President of the
MacArthur Foundation.
Addressing Challenges of Globalization:
An Independent Evaluation of
the World Bank's Approach to Global Programs, Phase 2 Report
"This thorough, illuminating report accurately reviews and develops the
picture of the CGIAR contained in past reviews of performance of
individual Centers, and by a few intermittent reviews of the System as
a whole. Its proposals are, in large measure, essential if the research
contribution of the System is to thrive. The World Bank is well placed
to overcome the collective action problem and build the trust needed to
induce donors, Centers, and the CGIAR System centrally to move together
in the directions indicated. In asserting this responsibility for
corporate governance of the CGIAR System, the Bank should work closely
with other major donors of unrestricted funds...It is the most
comprehensive and authoritative analysis available of the CGIAR and the
challenges it faces in “nourishing the future through scientific
excellence." The external Advisory Committee consisting of Yujiro Hayami, Graduate
Program Director, Foundation for Advanced Studies on International
Development, Tokyo, Japan; Michael Lipton, Research Professor of
Economics, Poverty Research Unit, University of Sussex, U.K.; and
Harris Mule, Vice Chair, Transparency International (Kenya) and
Director, Top Investment Management Services, Nairobi, Kenya. Signed
from Tokyo, Brighton, Nairobi 14 March 2003.
"Overall the Taskforce powerfully demonstrated the importance of
empirical analysis as a basis for policy studies and policy making, and
demonstrated a methodology - the case study approach - for conducting
empirical analysis. Furthermore, the Taskforce showed the value and
potential of independent and constructive policy analysis in the
forestry sector… and created a demand for additional analysis and input
by trusted independent organizations"
Zheng Yisheng and Zuo Ting
Evaluation of the Western China Forests and Grasslands Taskforce,
2000-2002 co-chaired by Uma Lele, China Council for International
Cooperation on Environment and Development.
Uma Lele "is considered one of the foremost economists in developing
understanding of the complex interactions among agricultural policy,
agricultural growth, and equity as they collectively influence pace and
pattern of
overall development. She has also made important contributions in
understanding the roles of international finance, policy advice, and
knowledge transfers in the processes of growth and distribution in
developing countries"
American Agricultural Economic Association, 1999
"She demonstrated that virtually all widely held views about Indian grain markets were invalid."
The late Professor D. Gale Johnson
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
"Her first major contributions dealt with agricultural market behavior
in South Asia. Her work demonstrated that rural commodity markets
worked efficiently. ... major challenge to conventional wisdom at the
time. Her second major contribution dealt with the evaluation of rural
development programs particularly in Africa. These studies reported in
her book The Design of Rural Development.: Lessons From Africa
(Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press) had a major impact on
redirecting World Bank policy away from an excessive emphasis on
integrated rural development programs. It forced a refocus on the
policy environment needed to make such programs effective. In addition
to her research Uma his had major academic and administrative
experience."
Vernon Ruttan
Regents Professor Emeritus
Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Minnesota
Due largely to her leadership, the report produced by the Panel (on),
"Global Research on the Environmental and Agricultural Nexus for the
21st Century", was exceptional in terms of its relevance to the
agricultural research needs of developing countries as well as its
vision of the future of agriculture and agricultural research in the
global context. Her critical contribution, knowledge of developing
countries in general and of Africa in particular and mastery of the
economics of sustainable agricultural development suffused the report
and has given it enduring value."
Henri Carsalade
Deputy Director General
Food and Agriculture Organization
"... the GREAN Initiative is a highly innovative new approach for
engaging U.S. science in the most pressing global agricultural and
related environmental issues, and in many ways Uma Leie has been both
its heart and soul... early on Uma recognized the need for a new
paradigm for U.S. international agricultural research to reflect the
new context... a paradigm of peer-based, demand-led , and mutually
beneficial research which is Based on fully collaborative partnerships
among US, universities, Developing country national agricultural
research systems, and the international agricultural research
centers.Uma's leadership has been critical in developing the mechanisms
and securing resources necessary for the GREAN concept into
practice."
R. S. Paroda
The Director General
Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Secretary, Science and Technology
Government of India
"Her advice has stood the test of time. Her quest for improving the
quality of Bank lending and for achieving excellence has always
impressed me. She persuaded the World Bank's Latin America Region to
finance the loan for the major restructuring of the Brazilian National
Agricultural Research System and she played a leadership role in its
design. She has managed to engage the Government of China and the WorId
Bank in a dialogue on agricultural research investments."
Ismail
Serageldin
Director of Bibliotheca Alexadrina, Alexandria, Egypt
Former Vice President of Environmentally and
Socially Sustainable Development, World Bank
"Dr. Lele's contribution to the development of agricultural research
and linkages South-North... has been outstanding... The project (in
Brazil) has many innovative characteristics including
the introduction of a major competitive grants system open to all
agricultural research institutions in Brazil."
Francisco Reifschneider
Director, CGIAR
formerly Secretariat of International Cooperation, EMBRAPA, Brazil
"She has played a very important role in increasing the scientific
excellence and social relevance of the research and capacity building
programs of the CGIAR"
M.S. Swaminathan
M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation
"Her efforts in the World Bank in initiating collaborative research in
developing countries will be very useful for accelerating agricultural
growth."
Mruthyanjaya
Assistant Director General
Indian Council of Agricultural Research
"I was impressed by her insights into rural development issues and the
importance of women especially in the rural economy of .
India. Uma Lele has developed into one of the authorities
on the problems of Sub-saharan African agriculture and rural
development. She has become an advocate for providing more effective
public, social and policy support for women in development everywhere."
Norman Borlaug
Nobel Lauriate and Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture
Texas A and M University
"She is clearly a very well recognized authority on the subject
(of rural development in developing countries), which is itself very
broad covering for instance marketing and production technology,
policies and institutions, local grass-root level developments and
international dimensions. What has stuck me most over the years is the
soundness of her judgment on these issues which are often complex,
because they result from multiple interactions, making clear diagnoses
difficult. She has and continues to play an important role in the
debates on these issues at the World Bank. These debates are often
controversial; Uma does not hesitate to forcefully put her views
across, even if these views are iconoclasticshe is very often right.
Her international reputation is not only due to some advantage which
she would have derived from working at the World Bank."
Michel Petit
Former Director of Agriculture
World Bank
"She was a highly valued member of the Technical Advisory Committee of
the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. She
contributed greatly to a more rigorous and more analytical approach to
priority setting and resource allocation."
The late Robert Havener
Former Director of CYMMIT and Chair of Various CGIAR
Center Boards
"she has an unusual ability to select a significant problem and then
turn out a stream of working papers followed by a landmark book. The
issues raised in Dr. Lele's 1971 book, (Foodgrain Marketing in India:
Private Performance and Public Policy) are still timely in the changing
public and private sector roles in grain marketing in developing
countries. Dr. Lele's questions about Tanzania's development strategy
created a firestorm in the World Bank leading to a launch of a
comparative study of six countries in Africa."
Carl Eicher
University Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Michigan State University
"As member of the faculty of the University of Florida, she gave
outstanding leadership to the development of the GREAN program to help
promote substantial increases in funding for international agricultural
research"
E. T. York
Chancellor Emeritus
State University System of Florida
"Dr. Lele is highly regarded internationally for her outstanding work
as an economist.in many areas in Asia and Africa."
Yujiro Hayami
Graduate Program Director
Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development
Tokyo, Japan
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Peer Reviews 
