1. PURPOSE OF THE REGIONAL STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

Global leaders gathered at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome for the first World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996 and pledged their commitment to reduce the world's hungry by half within two decades. At the follow-up WFS: five years later in 2002 they assessed progress, planned policy improvements and reaffirmed their commitment made at the WFS.

The task's urgency was reiterated at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. Among the eight Millennium Development Goals, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger was given top priority.

Earlier, at the 30^thSession of FAO's Conference in November 1999, member countries approved the Organization's first ever Strategic Framework. This document guides FAO's activities aimed at, among other objectives, helping member countries reach the WFS target of halving the number of undernourished by 2015. The Organization's rolling medium-term plans and successive biennial programmes of work and budget are directed at accomplishing this priority task.

FAO's Corporate Strategic Framework 2000-2015 supports the Organization's fundamental role, namely to promote the common welfare by furthering separate and collective actions for the purpose of:

raising levels of nutrition and standards of living of the people;
securing improvements in the efficiency of the production and distribution of all food and agricultural products;
bettering the condition of rural populations; and
contributing towards an expanding world economy and ensuring humanity's freedom from hunger.

In addressing these challenges, 5 corporate strategies and 12 strategic objectives were defined (Box 1). These strategies address cross-organizational issues in carrying out FAO programmes designed to ensure excellence, enhance cooperation among different disciplines, broaden partnerships and alliances, improve management processes, leverage resources and communicate FAO's messages.

The thrust of FAO's Strategic Framework is basically global and needs to be adapted to the specific characteristics and diverse needs of the vast complex region that makes up Asia and the Pacific. For this purpose, the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) has drawn up a Regional Strategic Framework (RSF): An Asia-Pacific guide specifically addressing the region's persistent problems of poverty and hunger, despite its rapid political, social and economic progress.

Under the RSF, RAP offers technical assistance to its member nations, provides advice on policy development, helps in building capacities and institutions, and facilitates transfer of knowledge and technologies.

TOWARDS A FOOD-SECURE ASIA AND PACIFIC REGIONAL STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Box 1: FAO's strategies to address members' needs

Strategy A: Contributing to the eradication of food insecurity and rural poverty

A.1 Sustaining rural livelihood and more equitable access to resources

A.2 Access of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups to sufficient, safe and nutritionally adequate food

A.3 Preparedness for, and effective and sustainable response to, food and agricultural emergencies

Strategy B: Promoting, developing and reinforcing policy and regulatory frameworks for food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry

B.1 International instruments concerning food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry, and the production, safe use and fair exchange of agricultural, fishery and forestry goods

B.2 National policies, legal instruments and supporting mechanisms that respond to domestic requirements and are consistent with the international policy and regulatory frameworks

Strategy C: Creating sustainable increases in the supply and availability of food and other products from the crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors

C.1 Policy options and institutional measures to improve efficiency and adaptability in production, processing and marketing systems, and meet the changing needs of producers and consumers

C.2 Adoption of appropriate technology to sustainably intensify production systems and to ensure sufficient supplies of food and agricultural, fisheries and forestry goods and services

Strategy D: Supporting the conservation, improvement and sustainable use of natural resources for food and agriculture

D.1 Integrated management of land, water, fisheries, forest and genetic resources

D.2 Conservation, rehabilitation and development of environments at greater risk

Strategy E: Improving decision-making through the provision of information and assessments and fostering of knowledge management for food and agriculture

E.1 An integrated information resource base, with current, relevant and reliable statistics, information and knowledge made accessible to all FAO clients

E.2 Regular assessments, analyses and outlook studies for food and agriculture

E.3 A central place for food security on the international agenda