Mrs. Erlene C. Manohar has resumed office of ICC as the new ICC-COGENT Coordinator, who has recently stepped down from her long-serving post as Deputy Administrator from the Philippines Coconut Authority. She began her new post working initially remotely, on Monday 4th October 2021. The informal welcome and introduction to her induction on the day was attended by ICC’s executives and professional staffs; Dr. Carmel A. Pilotti, Associate Scientist, Coconut Genetic Resources, Fiji; Dr. Roland Bourdeix, Bioversity, France; Dr. Irene Kernot, Research Program Manager Horticulture, ACIAR, Australia.
Dr. Irene Kenot, ACIAR, delivered the welcome remarks. She expressed her appreciation to Ms. Erlene for being willing to share and participate and contribute to the future sustainability of COGENT, as an important part of that for preserving and promoting the capacity and capability to share that coconut genetic resources network. She was also thankful to Mr. Vincent, outgoing COGENT Coordinator for managing the projects, that despite the pandemic, there’s been progress and there’s also a lot to do with the willingness and the enthusiasm of the team.
Dr. Jelfina C. Alouw, Executive Director, ICC, in her introductory address expressed her gratefulness to have Ms. Erlene, a highly experienced and knowledgeable person as definitive COGENT Coordinator. She acknowledged Ms. Erlene’s long and impressive career and has shown strong leadership during her tenure as Deputy Administrator, for Research and Development of the PCA. She congratulated and warmly welcomed Ms. Erlene to become part of COGENT and ICC Secretariat team.
She also expressed her sincere gratitude to the outgoing COGENT Coordinator, Mr. Vincent Johnson, for his invaluable and countless hours of support and strong commitment in building and growing COGENT to what it is today and wish him the very best in his future, with the new positive collaborative energy to keep supporting COGENT and ICC, as COGENT plays a very substantial role in the coconut conservation and use. With the full-time coordinator's active engagement to member countries, countries hosting the 5 International Genes Bank, and national and international institutions and organizations, she believed that most of the challenges can be addressed. She also hoped that in collaboration with the new Coordinator, ICC could expand membership to cover all COGENT members with active involvement and participation in ICC and COGENT programs. ED also presented an overview of some programs and projects of the ICC.
Mr. Vincent Johnson, the outgoing COGENT Coordinator, presented COGENT program, an overview of the COGENT Strategy, Steering Committee, ITAGs, ICGS, COGENT Sustainability Plan Outline, an overview of ongoing ACIAR project, website, and communication, followed by a discussion of COGENT Coordinator’s role and working arrangements.
In her remarks, Ms. Erlene mentioned, “We need to work as a team with all others who works with COGENT before, to make difference in setting up the direction for the coconut industry globally. With all member countries depending on us, we must work as one and moving forward toward the welfare of the stakeholders of the industry. Let us envision transformation and convergence among member countries, in uplifting the lives of coconut farmers through conservation and protection of our coconut genetic resources. I will be an active partner of the team and share the same vision for the coconut growing community.”