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PR 96/8 - SUB REGIONAL OFFICE FOR BARBADOS AND THE CARIBBEAN
Barbados, April -- The Government of Barbados and the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) today signed an agreement establishing the
Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean. It will serve Antigua and Barbuda,
Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada,
Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and
the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
The agreement establishing the FAO office in Barbados was signed by
Minister of Foreign Affairs Billie Miller and FAO Sub-regional
Representative Lawrence A. Wilson.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mr. Wilson said, "The establishment
of the FAO Caribbean Sub-Regional Office is an institutional recognition
of the needs of the Caribbean and a resulting redeployment of resources to
the sub-region in order to bring the central thrust of FAO closer to the
countries concerned."
The office will employ a staff of 19, including multi-disciplinary
team of 9 scientists working in Policy Assistance, Agricultural Education
and Extension, Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Forestry and National
Resource Management and Fisheries.
The recent establishment of sub-regional offices in North Africa,
East and Southern Africa, Eastern Europe, the Pacific Islands, and now in
the Caribbean, is a major thrust of the decentralization policy of FAO
Director-General Jacques Diouf.
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