PC 89/8 |
|
PC 89/8 |
Eighty-ninth Session |
Rome, 5 – 9 May 2003 |
Report on Important Programme Developments |
1. At its 81st session in May 1999, the Committee requested that an annual report be henceforth submitted “to indicate important programme changes that had occurred during the year”. The last report of this type was submitted to its May 2001 session, while no report was submitted in 2002, as no development worth reporting and falling under its scope was identified in the intervening period. The present report covers developments during the year 2002 and the early part of 2003, and their implications.
2. In response to Resolution 2/2001 of the 31st session of the FAO Conference, the United Nations General Assembly approved a Resolution in December 2002, which established 2004 as the International Year of Rice (IYR). This Resolution invited FAO to facilitate implementation of the IYR, in collaboration with Governments, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centres and other major international and non-governmental stakeholders concerned with rice development.
3. It is recalled that the observance of the IYR is expected to promote efficient and sustainable rice development through a range of mutually beneficial actions by the whole community of stakeholders at all levels, addressing the challenges and opportunities facing production, consumption, marketing and trade of this strategic food.
4. Preparatory activities for the IYR commenced in early 2003. Within FAO, the Steering Committee of the International Rice Commission has been assigned a leadership and coordinating role. An International Working Group for IYR has been established and met on 6-7 March in Rome. A concept paper which provides the framework for preparatory and observance activities by all stakeholders is to be finalized and widely disseminated in June.
5. Planning for the IYR has had significant programme and budget implications for work under programme entity 212P5 “Support to the International Rice Commission”. During 2003, staff time will have to be redirected from other IRC coordination and networking activities to assist in the establishment of national organizing committees and for the preparation of papers and other documentation for the IYR. The impact on planned outputs will be reported in the next Programme Implementation Report. A major output is factored in the proposed PWB 2004-05 for the IYR, which has implied some reallocation of staff time and non-staff resources.
6. As the needed financial support to ensure successful implementation of the IYR is being assessed, it is anticipated that substantial extra-budgetary resources, complemented by partnership arrangements, will be required for both the planning and implementation phases.
(of general impact, but affecting particularly Major Programmes 2.2 and 3.1)
7. In the wake of the World Food Summit:five years later (WFS:fyl) held in June 2002, a number of initiatives have been launched which are being actively supported throughout the Organization, while others have been strengthened. The following highlights are provided for the information of the Programme Committee. While the requirements for follow-up to the WFS:fyl were to some extent anticipated in work-programmes, the broad sweep of these initiatives has implied adjustments, which it is not possible to describe in detail as they permeate many areas of established work, especially as relates to policy analysis and advice.
- The Millennium Development Goals
8. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted at the Millennium Summit of September 2000, are increasingly coming to the fore as the major guide and catalyst to concerted international action. As the World Food Summit (WFS) target of halving hunger, which was reiterated at the WFS:fyl, is one of the over-arching MDGs, and several other MDGs are closely related to FAO’s mandate, it is important that the Organization contribute to current efforts to implement the MDGs.
9. During 2002, FAO has participated in an important exercise called “The UN and the MDGs: A Core Strategy”. This consists of four components: the Millennium Project, which includes an International Advisory Panel of globally eminent persons, a UN Expert Group of senior UN system staff and 10 issue-specific Task Forces; a Millennium Campaign; global and country level monitoring; and country reports on the MDGs. Currently, FAO is represented on the Expert Group, as well as on the Task Forces on Hunger, Sustainable Development and Trade. It is also in the process of sensitising its field offices to the MDG process at the country level.
10. FAO has itself pioneered important initiatives at international and national levels in support of hunger reduction, in particular: the Anti-Hunger Programme (AHP), the International Alliance against Hunger, National Food Security Strategies, coupled with on-going key programmes and activities such as the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) and FIVIMS. It needs, therefore, to capitalize on this considerable body of work and that of strategic partners (particularly IFAD and WFP) to support concretely the MDG process. The integration of its own work at various levels into a more global framework of action would give FAO a much strengthened status in the MDG Hunger Task Force, and other activities related to the MDG process.
- The Anti-Hunger Programme (AHP)
11. The AHP gives priority to actions to increase productivity, promote the sustainable utilization of natural resources, market infrastructure, research and knowledge generation and the development of social safety nets. In line with the joint FAO/IFAD/WFP paper presented at the International Conference on Financing for Development held in early 2002 in Monterrey, the AHP advocates a twin-track approach, combining investment in longer-term development and poverty reduction, with measures to provide direct and immediate assistance to those most needy and hungry.
12. Thus far, the AHP is a Secretariat paper without formal status but it is to be considered by the 29th CFS, 12-16 May 2003, under agenda item: Recent FAO Initiatives in the Fight Against Hunger, for endorsement.
- The International Alliance against Hunger (IAAH)
13. The Declaration of the WFS:fyl was entitled The International Alliance against Hunger. As the MDG machinery outlined above seeks to promote collaboration among inter alia UN agencies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and the private sector at international and national levels, this machinery could be one of the effective vehicles for the promotion of the IAAH. A paper on the IAAH will also be considered by the next session of the CFS under the agenda item: Recent FAO Initiatives in the Fight against Hunger.
- The Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security
14. In the Declaration adopted at the World Food Summit:five years later (WFS fyl) the Heads of State and Government reaffirmed "the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food" and invited:
"…the FAO Council to establish at its One Hundred and Twenty-third Session an Intergovernmental Working Group, with the participation of stakeholders, in the context of the WFS follow-up, to elaborate, in a period of two years, a set of voluntary guidelines to support Member States' efforts to achieve the progressive realisation of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security; we ask the FAO, in close collaboration with relevant treaty bodies, agencies and programmes of the UN system, to assist the Intergovernmental Working Group, which shall report on its work to the Committee on World Food Security." (Operative paragraph 10)
15. The process of elaborating the voluntary guidelines is now underway with the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) held on 24-26 March 2003. The timetable foresees that a Second Session will be held in September/October 2003 to review Draft Voluntary Guidelines, and a third session, to finalize the Voluntary Guidelines, in June 2004. The IGWG would report to the CFS in September 2004.
- Strategies and Policies for National Food Security and Agricultural Development
16. The Secretariat has stepped up action to provide policy advice and assistance to developing countries in reviewing and updating national agricultural development and food security strategies and policies, and to formulate effective anti-hunger strategies aimed at achieving WFS goals. This includes:
- Regional Programmes for Food Security (RPFS)
17. During the 2002-03 biennium, as implementation of the SPFS was gaining momentum at the national level, it became apparent that complementary action at regional level was necessary to deal with dimensions where multi-country co-operation was essential: e.g. in relation to policy and institutional harmonisation; trade facilitation; coordinated food safety measures and regional support to national food security efforts. A number of Regional Economic Organizations (REOs) decided to prepare and implement Regional Programmes for Food Security (RPFS). Again, the onus fell principally on Major Programme 3.1 in supporting the preparation of 20 RPFSs, of which 12 (AMU, BSEC, CARIFORUM, CEMAC, COMESA, CEEAC, CEN-SAD, ECOWAS, IGAD, SADC, SPF-SPC, and UEMOA) have been adopted by the respective Governing Bodies of these organizations. For 8 other REOs (ASEAN, CAC, CAN, CAEU, ECO, GCC, MERCOSUR and SAARC), preparation is in progress. It may be recalled that alongside the WFS: fyl in Rome, 19 Side Events were organized on Regional Food Security.
18. Once the RPFSs are endorsed, FAO needs to continue assisting with the preparation of projects for submission to donors. So far, it is estimated that US$ 4 million, in terms of UTF resources, have been mobilised for implementation of the RPFS in the member countries of the UEMOA. The Government of Libya has agreed to provide US$ 9.3 million for the CEN-SAD RPFS, and that of Italy has agreed to provide US$ 5 million for the RPFS for CARIFORUM and another US$ 3.5 million for the RPFS covering South Pacific Forum countries.
- NEPAD Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme
19. The countries of Africa have adopted a vision under which they are committed to take responsibility for their own development, while seeking faster economic growth and greater equity, and reducing potential marginalisation on the international scene. A major mechanism they have adopted to those ends, is the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Agriculture has been highlighted as the only economic sector under this programme’s first Action Plan, partly in reflection of the fact that agriculture directly affects the livelihoods of some 70% of Africa’s people.
20. FAO is now actively engaged in supporting the NEPAD programme on agriculture, undertaking a number of policy assistance activities to help Africa operationalise this programme, including market access associated with the sector. Major Programme 3.1 has re-aligned its policy assistance services to Africa to match the requirements from the NEPAD initiative, in collaboration with other programmes, the SPFS and the TCP. FAO assisted the NEPAD Secretariat in the preparation of a Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP); helped the African Ministers for Agriculture to review and endorse the CAADP; facilitated the identification of early opportunities for NEPAD activities on the ground; supported inter-country policy dialogue on agriculture; organised, in partnership with the African Development Bank, a high level meeting on Regional Food Security in the context of NEPAD (Abuja, December 2002).
(Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) (Major Programme 2.3)
21. Concerns over the conservation status of some commercially exploited aquatic species, some of which are referred to CITES, have escalated during the last two years.
22. The Fisheries Department has been heavily involved in the activities leading up to, and in follow up to the 12th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 12), held in Santiago, Chile, in November 2002. The latter requested that FAO-CITES collaboration be intensified. The essential contribution of FAO, particularly in assisting scientific-based assessment in the CITES listing process, has been fully recognised and is being strengthened. While the Department has sought to accommodate this additional workload to the maximum extent possible within existing resources, it must be noted that its human and financial resources remain insufficient for the full range of tasks required.
23. At the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, the Director-General offered to consider hosting the secretariat of the newly created International Partnership for Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions. To date, 30 countries and 30 international organizations, including FAO, are members of this new partnership. The Director-General's offer was acknowledged by the UN General Assembly. Members of the Partnership will meet later in 2003 to decide on arrangements for a secretariat. In the interim, the governments of Switzerland and Italy have provided FAO with extra-budgetary support for a small secretariat to prepare for the Partnership and to maintain linkages between the work of the International Year of Mountains 2002 and the new Partnership. The FAO Forestry Department is supporting this initiative through regular programme support under programme 241 Forest Resources. While it was expected that there would be follow-up work following the International Year of Mountains, the new Partnership was unanticipated and the impact on regular programme staff and resources has been much higher than expected.
24. The 15th session of COFO in 2001 called upon FAO to play a stronger role in harmonizing forest-related definitions of key terms used by multiple international processes, including the conventions on climate change, biodiversity, and desertification, and in addition to the international forest policy dialogue under the United Nations Forum on Forests. Urgency has been given to this work because of the recent emergence of forests as a key aspect in negotiations under the climate change convention. This work was anticipated as an extra-budgetary activity in pargraph 562, PWB 2002-03, but the impact on the regular programme is much higher than expected. The process has become a major activity, with two large international expert consultations, hosted by FAO in collaboration with a large number of other organizations, having already taken place, and two additional expert consultations are now planned for 2003 following the request by the 16th session of COFO in March 2003 to accelerate the process.
25. This document is for information only but the Committee is invited to make such comments as it considers fit.