News

Global Meeting concludes, new momentum for MP

15.12.2017

Over 220 participants attended the fifth Global Meeting of the Mountain Partnership on 11-13 December 2017 in Rome, Italy, under the theme ‘Mountains under pressure: climate, hunger, migration’. International Mountain Day coincided with the first day of the meeting, and participants heard high-level statements by founding members of the Mountain Partnership, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the governments of Italy and Switzerland, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment). This was followed by remarks by three Mountain Partnership Goodwill Ambassadors, including His Holiness Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang, head of the Drikung Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism; Arjun Gupta, founder of TeleSoft Partners; and Jake Norton, founder of MountainWorld Productions. Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization, gave a keynote speech.

The Framework for Action was launched at the start of the meeting and endorsed by the governments and civil society. Mountain Partnership members considered the challenges and responses of the Framework for Action and its alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Amendments to the Governance paper were discussed and new Steering Committee members were elected. Work priorities for the next four years, organized around the Mountain Partnership’s functions of advocacy, capacity development, joint action, and communication, were identified.

On the final day of the Global Meeting, the Partnership considered how best to support the implementation of the Framework for Action and “gear up” for the next biennium. The organizers of the six side events that were held on day two presented the outcomes of their events. After the meeting closed, the newly-elected Steering Committee held its first meeting. Italy was elected as the Chair of the Steering Committee and UN Environment and the Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre were elected as Vice Chairs.

Read more:
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Mountain Partnership Steering Committee 

Photo: FAO/Roberto Cenciarelli