The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), based in Kathmandu, has been around for nearly a decade, and remains the only one of its kind worldwide. However, for some reasons of its own making and some not, the Centre has not been able to make a dent in the world of development studies and applied research.
In an effort to revive ICIMOD, its Board met in Berne last June and decided to revamp the structure and change the personnel. Acting on the advice of a three-member review panel, the Board decided, among other things, to change its own composition and thus reduce the influence of government representatives, recruit the Centre´s core staff according to international criteria,"decentralise" ICIMOD´s functioning in the region, and correct the existing over-representation of Nepali staff.
As Rudolf Hoegger, the Swiss historian and Chairman of the Board said then, the Centre´s future strategy should comprise of three elements, "Quality, Quantity and Stability."
The complaint ICIMOD-watchers have had over the years is that all three attributes are lacking in ICIMOD´s functioning and output. The next couple of years will show whether the regional member States, on the one hand, and the donors, on the other, will allow the Centre to function as an independent entity, and whether the Centre´s new leadership (the term of present Director E.F.Tacke runs out in mid-1993) and staff will be up to the challenge thrown to them.