H.E Nic Hailey, British High Commissioner to Kenya (fourth left), led a delegation from the British High Commission in Nairobi on a visit to ILRI on 31 July 2018 (photo credit: ILRI/Paul Karaimu).

Written by Ann Mureithi, senior administrative officer in the director general’s office.

‘The British High Commissioner to Kenya, His Excellency Mr Nic Hailey, made a courtesy visit to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on Tuesday, 31 July 2018. . . .

ILRI is one of 15 CGIAR research centres and the only one dedicated entirely to animal agriculture research for the developing world.

CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food-secured future.

‘. . . ILRI’s research for development agenda covers a range of areas from laboratory-based biosciences to field-based research. The topics covered include animal productivity (health, genetics and feeds); food safety and zoonoses; livestock and the environment; and policies, institutions and livelihoods. Capacity development is an important part of the institute’s mandate and cuts across all its research and development areas. . . .

‘The rich history of UK-ILRI collaborations includes some of the finest UK research institutions, such as: the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Nottingham, Oxford, Nottingham and Reading; the Genome Analysis Centre, Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed), International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Institute of Development Studies (IDS), John Innes Centre, Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH), Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Oxford Centre for Human Genetics, Roslin Institute, Royal Veterinary College (RVC), Sanger Centre, Scotland’s Rural college (SRUC), University College London, and Wellcome Trust.

‘One of ILRI’s current important strategic alliances with the UK is the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH), a partnership among the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland’s Rural College and ILRI to generate and advance use of scientific knowledge in dairy genomics, poultry genomics, livestock health genetics, reproductive technologies, and informatics to improve the health and productivity of farmed animals in the tropics. . . .

We were delighted to receive the high commissioner and his staff and show some of the research we are conducting to improve the lives of the millions of people in Kenya, and the hundreds of millions in developing countries worldwide, who depend on livestock for their livelihoods.

As a UK national, I am proud of the strong links between ILRI and UK research institutions and of the long history of investment by the UK Government in our work.

—Iain Wright, ILRI deputy director general for research and development–integrated sciences

Recent slide presentations ILRI Director General Jimmy Smith has made in the UK
The role of livestock in developing countries: Misperceptions, facts and consequences, presented at conference on ‘Extinction and Livestock: Moving to a Flourishing Food System for Wildlife, Farm Animals and Us’ organized by Compassion in World Farming and the World Wildlife Fund-UK and held in London, 5–6 Oct 2017.

Livestock Research Contributions to the SDGs—Starting with the End in Mind: Real-world evidence for real-world solutions, presented at the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health 2017 Annual Meeting in Edinburgh, 26–29 Sep 2017.

The changing images of livestock in development, presented at ‘The role of livestock in smallholder livelihoods’ All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development in London, 29 Jun 2016.

Read the whole news article on the ‘Brits in Kenya’ website: British High Commissioner to Kenya visits the International Livestock Research Institute, 13 Aug 2018.