CIO Team

Enrica Porcari

Chief Information Officer (CIO)
ICT-KM Program Leader

When the CGIAR's first Chief Information Officer moved into her new office at The WorldFish Center in Penang , Malaysia , she felt an acute sense of isolation. Twelve time zones away from the USA and South America , the CGIAR newcomer felt cut off from the System that employed her. Far removed from her native Italy , temporarily computerless and with no colleagues at her host Center, she knew getting through the first week would probably be a challenge.

Now, anyone who knows Enrica Porcari will know she is not the sort of person to sit behind an empty desk and wait for things to happen. With five years experience handling emergencies at the World Food Programme and fresh from a Reuters-sponsored fellowship at Stanford University , she knew that if she wanted to get things done, she would need to get the help and support of as many people in the System as possible.

To her credit, just two months later, at the CGIAR's 2002 Annual General Meeting in the Philippines , Enrica gave a presentation on how to position IT and Knowledge Management (KM) in the CGIAR. Her outline, which was strongly supported by her supervisor at that time, Frank Rijsberman, and enthusiastically accepted by the Directors General, would eventually evolve into the present ICT-KM Program.

Back in Penang , Enrica looked at the newly-accepted skeleton Program and wondered how she was going to flesh out the bones.

"At that time, I had two options," she says. "I could sit in my office and try to make things up or I could go out and ask people what they thought. So I created an advisory group and asked people from the various communities to nominate someone willing to participate in the creation of the Program."

Subsequently, an online consultation with the various nominees was held at the beginning of 2003 culminating in a face-to-face meeting in May of the same year.

In between waiting for people to answer their mail, this dynamic woman kept herself busy building the credibility of the Program. For example, she began identifying System-wide savings opportunities. "Working together has its advantages" she repeats often.

Indeed, new negotiations for Microsoft products resulted in more than a million dollars in savings. And the number of contracts negotiated under the Program continues to grow.

Of course, there was much more to the Program than negotiating contracts here and there.

As she explains, "While all of this was going on, I took the time to create a strategy that everyone would be comfortable with. Finally, the Investment Plan was presented to the Center Directors Committee in May 2003."

Many of the projects under this Investment Plan have since come to fruition, with some exceptional outputs. For example, CGXchange, an intranet/extranet site that spans the CGIAR's fifteen Centers and beyond, was launched at the CGIAR's 2005 Annual General Meeting in Morocco, where it was received with great excitement. The Knowledge Management and Sharing Project has also exceeded all expectations. And the good stories continue.

Despite these achievements, Enrica is quick to point out that the process, not just the output, deserves to be highlighted, too.

"People are actually talking to each other and working more collaboratively. For example, you can see many areas where KM programs are being created at Center level; even things that are outside my radar screen. I think we are planting little seeds everywhere and people are starting to become aware and supportive of the values we're trying to promote. And they're embracing it and running with it, which is the whole point of everything we've been trying to do. That's the part I'm most proud of. Attitudes are certainly changing and that's what's going to be long-lasting."

Before joining the CGIAR, Enrica, who holds a M.Sc in Social Sciences from the University of Milan, Italy, was Chief of ICT Field Services at the World Food Programme. It was while she was attached to WFP that she was awarded her fellowship at Stanford University to develop a project to effectively transition IT installations from emergency to development. Prior to this position, this versatile woman worked with CGNET, the same company that provides the CGIAR with networking services.

In September 2005, the ICT-KM Program Leader moved her office from Penang to Bioversity, Rome, just 30km away from her hometown of Tivoli . Although her various responsibilities with the Program have her constantly on the go, she strives hard to balance her career and family life. Her fast-paced days always include quality time for her daughter Julia, 9, and son, William, 6. Of course, no one ever does anything completely on their own, and she gives credit to her husband, Stuart, for sharing family responsibilities while maintaining his own career at FAO.

If you're still not convinced that you can have it all if you work hard enough, all you need to do is take a peek inside Enrica's shoe closet. All those years studying in Milan , the shoe capital of the world, have certainly had an effect on this woman's normally tenacious willpower.

"What more could any woman want?" you might ask.

Enrica's response: "Just a little more sleep, please."