INTRODUCTION

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recognizes that agricultural information management plays a key role in ensuring food security and sustainable development.

In this context, FAO has established the Consultation on Agricultural Information Management (COAIM), bringing policy issues related to management and access to agricultural information to the attention of the intergovernmental process.

COAIM is a biennial meeting that brings together policy-makers, funding agencies and major players in all the relevant fields of agricultural information, as well as observers from the United Nations and the non-governmental organization community. COAIM serves as a global framework for the normative work of FAO's World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT), thus addressing objectives of the World Food Summit Plan of Action.

The agenda of COAIM includes key topics such as producing operational mechanisms for the implementation of FAO´s mandate related to food and agricultural information management; improving the co-ordination of capacity building efforts; addressing issues related to creating guidelines and standards and other efforts proposed by FAO to increase the flow of information and communication.

The second meeting of the Consultation on Agricultural Information Management will be held in Rome, Italy, from 23 to 25 of September 2002. Discussions will be held on ways to improve the capacities of decision-makers, professionals and the public at large in Member Countries to access and use information essential for achieving sustainable agricultural development and food security at the national level.

In addition, the Consultation will convene workshops on key aspects of information networks and specialized systems such as FAOSTAT, AGLINET, and capacity-building initiatives to be facilitated by specialists and institutions from the wider development community and academia.