Center Commissioned External Review (CCER) of the role of CIAT in the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA)

PABRA is a consortium of three African bean networks, WECABREN, SABRN and
ECABREN, respectively covering West and central, southern, and East and
central Africa, which together represent the main 30 African bean-growing
nations. The CIAT staff member (currently Jean-Claude Rubyogo), under the
CIAT Regional Director for Africa (Robin Buruchara), coordinates PABRA with a
team of staff distributed among CIAT offices in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda
and Malawi. The foundations for PABRA were set in 1985 when CIAT began
researching beans in Rwanda, Burundi and DRC. SABRN and EABREN were
established in 1987, ECABREN came into existence in 1995 and in 1996
ECABREN and SABRN joined forces with CIAT to create PABRA. WECABREN
became a partner in 2006 and PABRA then assumed a truly pan-Africa status.
PABRA aims to improve nutrition, health, and food security, facilitate resilient
production systems and address market challenges to contribute sustainably to
better livelihoods and incomes for smallholder families in eastern, central,
southern and West Africa. Since 1996 PABRA members have released over 556
new common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) varieties, which are grown by about
eight million farmers.