Guyanese Jimmy Smith has been appointed the new Director General of the Inter-national Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi Kenya.
The announcement was made by ILRI board chair Knut Hove at the 35th meeting of the ILRI Board of Trustees on April 13, the ILRI said on its website. “We are facing challenges to make livestock more beneficial to the poor and less harmful to the environments of the poor. We think Jimmy Smith is a strong leader for ILRI, one who will open up new partnerships for pro-poor livestock research,” Hove was quoted as saying. He added that Smith “has an impeccable track record in developing extensive networks in the livestock sector globally and with development partners around the world… [And] we have full confidence that [he] will build upon the strong ILRI foundation and provide the leadership and vision to propel ILRI to greater heights.”
Smith will take the reigns from Carlos Seré and ILRI said the change-over is expected to take place in the next six months. Of his appointment, he said, “My commitment is to take ILRI to even higher heights.” Smith, who is now based at the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC, where he leads its Global Livestock Portfolio, previously held senior posts at the Canadian International Development Agency (2001-2006) and the Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute (1986-1999). During this time, ILRI said he continued playing a major role in supporting international livestock for development in terms of both funding and planning.
He grew up on the Berbice River, where his parents were mixed-crop and livestock farmers. He attended the Guyana School of Agriculture, was employed in the Ministry of Agriculture and subsequently was granted a scholarship to study agriculture at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, in the US, where he obtained his B.Sc. degree.
On his return to Guyana, he worked with the Livestock Development Company (LIDCO) and was largely responsible for the development of the company’s Moblissa operation into a successful large-scale dairy unit. He was promoted to Ranch Operation’s Manager in charge LIDCO’s four cattle ranches and two large dairy farms. He then enrolled in the University of Illinois, at Urban-Champaign, USA, where he completed his PhD in Animal Sciences.
ILRI said Smith served for 10 years at ILRI and its predecessor, the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), from 1991 to 2001. At ILCA and then ILRI, he was the regional representative for West Africa, where he led development of integrated research, promoting smallholder livelihoods through animal agriculture. It noted that he built effective partnerships among stakeholders in the region and at ILRI he spent three years leading the ILRI-led System-wide Livestock Programme of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an association of 10 CGIAR centres working on issues at the crop-livestock interface.
ILRI is a non-profit-making and non-governmental organisation that “works at the crossroads of livestock and poverty, bringing high-quality science and capacity-building to bear on poverty reduction and sustainable development.” It works in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and China.
