Opening of the consultation
1. The Regional Expert Consultation of the Asia-Pacific Network for Food and Nutrition (ANFN) on the Follow-up on Establishment of Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) organized by the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 21 to 24 November 2000. It was attended by 19 participants from 12 countries namely, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam. Resource persons from the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE), Montreal, Canada, FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy, Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, Policy Research for Development Alternative (UBINIG), Dhaka, Bangladesh and DECCAN Development Society (DDS), Hyderabad, India as well as special invitees from WHO and WFP also participated in the meeting. The names of the participants, resource persons and special invitees are given in Appendix I.
2. Biplab K. Nandi, Senior Food and Nutrition Officer, FAO (RAP) and Secretary, ANFN welcomed the participants and guests and requested them to introduce themselves. He, then, introduced the objectives of the Consultation and emphasized that the annual meetings of the Consultation on the same subject provided continuity for discussion and identification of specific courses of action for programmes such as FIVIMS establishment.
3. The Consultation unanimously elected Shashi P. Gupta (India) and Elsa M. Bayani (Philippines) as Chair and Co-chair respectively, while Maria Antonia G. Tuazon (Philippines) and Mirza Altaf Hossain (Bangladesh) were elected as rapporteurs.
4. R.B. Singh, Assistant Director-General (ADG) and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific opened the Consultation and welcomed the participants on behalf of the Director-General of FAO and on his own behalf. He congratulated the elected chairs and expressed deep appreciation to the ANFN Secretariat for a well-thought agenda for the Consultation. He underscored the importance of Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) as a logical and important instrument for achieving the goals of the International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) and the World Food Summit (WFS).
5. He also stressed to the Consultation that FIVIMS as a framework offers enough flexibility to be undertaken at national and international levels in order to meet the information requirements of various users. More importantly, the potential contributions of FIVIMS in improving policy formulation, programme management, design and targeting of interventions and promoting intersectoral coordination and management should be recognized, Dr Singh emphasized.
6. Based on the document “State of Food Insecurity (SOFI) in the World, 2000” which was launched in Thailand during the World Food Day 2000, he informed that Asia and the Pacific is home to most of the 792 million undernourished population who on average suffer from a daily energy deficit of 100 to 400 kilocalories. He mentioned that the countries represented in the Consultation could be categorised according to their various degrees of depths of hunger ranging from mild to severe. Similarly, the prevalence of undernourishment among developing countries was unacceptable especially when national commitments have been made to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, particularly at the World Food Summit (WFS).
8. The ADG also updated the Consultation on the follow-up actions undertaken based on the recommendations given during the ANFN Expert Consultation held in Sri Lanka last year. He expressed satisfaction in FAO Regional Office’s initiative in this regard.
9. He also commended the ANFN Secretariat for including a relevant topic on “Traditional Food Resources of Indigenous People in the Region and their Role in Providing Food Security.” The Consultation was reminded that such a profound topic could have valuable impact on achieving food and nutrition security.
10. In closing, addressing the issues concerning food insecurity, he quoted Gabrielle Mistral in saying “The hungry child can’t wait. It is today that his bones and sinews are being formed. You can’t tell him tomorrow. His name is today.” He further urged the Consultation to critically identify the constraints and come up with implementable recommendations in establishing FIVIMS in the region. The full text of the message is given in Appendix II.
