WARDA – The Africa Rice Center was constituted in 1970 by 11 West African countries (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo) with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) as the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA); a name that it carried until January 2003 when it was designated ‘Africa Rice Center’ in recognition of its increasing and leading role in rice research and development in sub-Saharan Africa.

WARDA became operational in 1971 with its headquarters located in Monrovia, Liberia, and an initial broad mandate including research, training, development, rice policy formulation and intraregional cooperation. Emphasis was placed on on-farm adaptive trials through direct introduction of genetic material from other regions, particularly
Asia.

From its establishment, WARDA’s goal has been to increase rice production in West Africa. To achieve this goal, some 15 years of research effort were invested in screening a wide range of introduced Asian genetic material in order to identify and select rice lines that could be adapted to and respond well under African conditions. It became clear that a longer-term, more assured commitment to research was needed to generate location-specific technology within the region.

In 1986, it was agreed that WARDA should come under the aegis of the CGIAR with a broadened mandate. The Association underwent a major transformation. In 1987, because of instability in Liberia, WARDA moved its headquarters from Monrovia to M’Bé, Côte d’Ivoire, with a new organizational structure and strategic plan. A new era of WARDA had started with the membership of the Association increasing from 11 to 17 countries of West and Central Africa (Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Nigeria in addition to the 11 mentioned above) and an increasing number of external donors, including OECD countries, development agencies and private foundations.

A new organizational structure and a clearly conceptualized strategic plan helped build a reputation of institutional excellence and scientific credibility. However, from the days of Monrovia to the time of this Strategic Plan, WARDA has faced a number of challenges.

During the period 1987–2003, WARDA underwent four External Program and Management Reviews (EPMRs), an inter-center review on rice, and several internally commissioned reviews. While an earlier study by Grant Scobie had questioned the existence of WARDA as an autonomous center, the fourth EPMR, conducted in 1999–2000, provided a strong testimony to the transformation of WARDA into a well-managed, vibrant and viable center of scientific excellence. The Millennium CGIAR King Baudouin Award bestowed on WARDA in 2000 further attested to the scientific excellence of the Center.

In September 2002, WARDA faced a major challenge with the military uprising that erupted in the host country of Côte d’Ivoire. WARDA was forced out of its headquarters, established temporary headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and redeployed most of its scientific staff to Bamako, Mali.

Two years of operations outside its Headquarters after the crisis, WARDA turned adversity into opportunity through efforts marked by tenacity and resilience. WARDA was able to successfully retrieve over 80% of duplicate samples of rice varieties from its genebank for storage outside the risk zone. The “heroic effort” of some of its local staff to maintain field experiments on the Campus despite the crisis was widely acclaimed. Emerging stronger from the crisis, WARDA staff rallied to ensure that the Center continued to remain vibrant and productive.

In response to the crisis, the WARDA Management had to take decisions that were both strategic and feasible addressing immediate and long-term concerns. The decisions, as part of its short-, medium-, and long-term crisis management strategies, covered almost every aspect of the health of the Center.

Thanks to tremendous support from the CGIAR Chair, Director and other representatives, the WARDA Council Chair, the Board, international agencies, and stakeholders and partners across the world, the Center was able to successfully cope with the crisis. WARDA's modus operandi of partnership that kept its R&D activities outside Côte d'Ivoire—in the networks coordinated by the Center as well as in its regional research stations in Senegal and Nigeria—undisturbed and unaffected by the crisis also helped the Center immensely during this period.

With the advances made in the peace process and assurances and support from its Council of Ministers, the Ivorian Government and the international community through the United Nations in Côte d’Ivoire (ONUCI), the Center developed a progressive return plan to its headquarters in Bouaké, which it started to implement in September 2004 and was expected to be completed by the end of December 2004.

However, hostilities resumed unexpectedly when Bouaké controlled by the New Forces was hit by air strikes from the Government forces killing a number of military personnel and civilians alike. One of WARDA’s senior scientists, Dr Robert Carsky, was killed when a bomb struck the French barracks where he had sought shelter from air strikes. It is a tragic loss for the Center and for Africa where he had spent most of his professional life dedicated to agricultural research. The Board, Management and staff expressed their deep sympathy to the Carsky family.

The resurgence of the civil strife required the evacuation of internationally recruited and senior non-Ivoirian support staff from Côte d'Ivoire. The Board decided during an extraordinary meeting in December 2004 to relocate the Center’s headquarters to Cotonou, Benin, in the facilities made available by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Institut national de recherche agronomique du Bénin (INRAB).

The Cotonou facilities fulfilled the Board’s criterion that the management and staff from research, administration and finance departments should be in the same location for increased efficiency. The Board has decided that the Center staff will operate from Cotonou with an initial planning horizon of 5 years during which the decision will be regularly reviewed. The Center is not abandoning its Bouaké headquarters in Côte d'Ivoire. The offices, laboratories, field facilities and genebank at the headquarters remain intact.

In spite of their traumatic experience in November 2004, WARDA staff have settled down quickly in Cotonou, which has proven to be a safe haven for research. They are vigorously engaged in brainstorming, planning and doing research. They continue to mobilize advanced science to develop global public goods that benefit not only poor people but also the economy of the African countries.