OF THE UNITED NATIONS
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| FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS |
ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENT BANK | |||||
FAO/IDB High-Level Technical Workshop
"Regional Programmes for Food Security in the Near East:
Towards Sustainable Food Security and Poverty Alleviation"
Jeddah, 8-9 October 2003
Resource Mobilization: IDB Project Cycle, Financing Requirements and Modalities
Regional Cooperation for Food Security: the Road Ahead
ANNEX 1 - LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
1. This report reflects the outcomes of a High-Level Technical Workshop organized jointly by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The Workshop was held at the IDB Headquartersin Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 8 to 9 October 2003. The Workshop was arranged as a follow-up to a side event held during the World Food Summit: five years later" (WFS-fyl) on "Regional Food Security at Work". During this side event, Regional Economic Organizations (REOs) presented their proposals for Regional Programmes for Food Security (RPFS). The REOs requested FAO to approach developmental financial institutions in their regions to continue the dialogue and to spearhead the process of formulating and implementing RPFS. This Workshop for the Near East Region is part of a series of similar meetings held jointly by FAO and developmental financial institutions in other Regions.
2. The Workshop was inaugurated by Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali, President of IDB, and Dr. Jacques Diouf, the Director General of FAO. The Workshop was attended by heads and representatives of the Regional Economic Organizations in the Near East Region: the Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU), the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), and the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU). It was also attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Fund for Development, the OPEC Fund, the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (AAAID), the African Development Bank (ADB), the Sahel-Sahara Organization (CEN-SAD) and the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD). Technical officers of FAO and IDB supported the deliberations of the Workshop. A full list of participants is attached as Annex 1.
3. In his opening statement, Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali, President of IDB, emphasized the importance of agriculture in general and food security issues in particular for the economies of developing countries, indicating that food security was given top priority in most IDB member countries. Nevertheless, he indicated that achievements were still quite far from the declared goals and he called for strengthening collaborative efforts to address this issue. Dr. Ali stated that, recognizing the importance of the agricultural sector, the IDB set a target of 20% of its total operational budget to finance the support to agricultural and food security projects. However, he pointed out the numerous difficulties in financing of agriculture and the measures proposed by the IDB to ease these difficulties. Dr. Ali indicated the IDB is looking forward to strengthening collaborative work with specialized institutions such as FAO.
4. Dr. Jacques Diouf, the Director General of FAO, pointed out in his opening statement that the Near East Region is characterized by harsh arid and semi-arid climate and faces many constraints and challenges for meeting its sustainable food security goals. He called for the Region to seize opportunities for more supportive integrated regional development policies and strategies, which will complement the efforts of individual member countries. Dr. Diouf concluded by calling upon the IDB, in collaboration with FAO and REOs, to quickly move beyond global sector programmes to bankable projects, to seek ways and means to maintain the awareness and interest in regional food security issues and to highlight the needed follow-up actions.
5. Dr. Mohamed Albraithen, FAO Assistant Director General (ADG)/Regional Representative for the Near East, provided an introductory statement in which he presented an overview of the Workshop's Agenda and a brief outline of the various technical papers to be presented to the Workshop. The Agenda of the meeting is attached as Annex 2.
6. National Strategies and Regional Programmes for Food Security: The paper highlighted the conceptual and pragmatic issues for linking the national strategies with the regional perspectives, and stressed on underlining the interrelationships between the two within the available literature and experiences on regionalization and economic integration. It specified some practical measures to be considered in strategic planning at both the national and regional levels to ensure synergy and coherence in dealing with the food security priorities at all levels. The paper proposed a framework that enables REO to complement the national efforts with strategies, programmes/projects that focus on issues which are better addressed at regional level. It also suggested selection criteria for programmes and/or projects that are regional and/or multi-country in nature, bearing in mind the need for synergy, harmony and complementarity between national and regional programmes for food security.
7. The paper recommended that: (1) National Efforts need to be supplemented by regional efforts where joint efforts are economical/cost effective and where regionalization is effective for trade creation; (2) Considerations should be given to Trade/Economic Harmonization and Integration within the New Regionalism paradigm for trade promotion; and (3) The current level of national (and regional) investment in agriculture is not enough, and constraints need to be assessed and met through joint efforts of financial institutions, technical organizations and regional economic organizations.
8. Trade, Food Safety and Market Access: Following the establishment of the WTO in 1994 and the entry into force of its Agreements, particularly the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS) and the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), the number of notifications received by the WTO related to SPS measures has increased dramatically. Food safety has occupied a prominent position in trade negotiations especially that some countries were using the precautionary measure under SPS as a means of protecting their domestic industries and as means of creating non-tariff barriers for food products coming from other countries, particularly developing ones. The paper gave an overview of the effect of SPS measures on international and regional food trade, the challenges and constraints to agricultural trade in the region in complying with SPS measures, emphasizing the importance of regional cooperation as an instrument to a more effective way of negotiating within the framework of the WTO and called for an evaluation of the impact of WTO agreements on food trade and food security in the region.
9. The paper recommended the strengthening of technical and institutional capacities in matters related to food safety (food laws, inspection systems, analysis services, quality assurance, and certification) and negotiation capacity (legal and trade-related) in international trade forums like the WTO. It also recommended establishing an appropriate institutional framework for region-wide joint action to better manage common resources and to strengthen national marketing systems that would enable movement of goods to the international and regional markets.
10. Water Resources Management for Food Security in the Near East Region: This paper highlighted the main supply and demand constraints and problems related to sustainable water resources management in Region. These problems include, among others, the rapid deterioration in the quality of water, weak irrigation water management, the unjustified decline in investment, the political sensitivity over shared water resources, the link between water deficit and food gap, and the lack of regional cooperation to address these issues. The paper highlighted the inability of past water supply augmentation policies to meet future food needs
11. The paper recommended the urgent need for a new regional strategy based on sustainable water demand management. Such a strategy would aim at improving productive efficiency under irrigation and rainfed agriculture, removing policy constraints to improve water allocation efficiency and to assess non-traditional options for enhancing and supporting on-going efforts and measures. Such a regional strategy would allow addressing these issues on a broader basis, built on regional cooperation and taking into consideration common strategic issues of the region. The paper also recommended holding a regional consultation in the course of 2004, with support from REOs, regional financing organizations, FAO and other concerned organizations. The event would provide a forum for a thorough discussion of water resources use from a regional perspective and identifying the means and mechanisms for implementing the recommended options.
12. Livestock Development Potential in the Region: The paper highlighted the importance of livestock in reducing poverty and contributing to food and nutritional security in the region. This importance is driven by the rapid growth of population in the region and increased demand for animal products. Nevertheless, this potential is largely dependent on sound measures to increase the productivity of livestock and to make use of the available natural resources.
13. The paper recommended several actions as necessary measures for the improvement of livestock subsector: (1) Investing in disease surveillance and control of economically important diseases, such as Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD), Rift Valley Fever (RFV), Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and Old World Screwworm (OWS); (2) Investing in vaccine production and establishment of animal disease reference laboratory to FMD; (3) Enhancement of intra-regional trade and support of projects dealing with animal quarantines, vaccination and marketing; and (4) Establishment and support of a system of early warning for Trans-boundary Animal Diseases (TDAs).
14. In addition to the above-mentioned four technical papers, the IDB made a presentation that provided an overview of the IDB's mandate, structure and operations. The presentation explained resource mobilization, modes of finance and financial requirements applied in the context of its project cycle and the acceptable format that should be followed by REOs in their preparation for food security projects. Referring to the remark by the IDB President in his opening statement about the under-utilization of the operational budget earmarked for agriculture, the presentation explained this situation as a result of several difficulties in financing agricultural projects which include: lack of suitable projects, lack of well-formulated priorities from member countries, difficulties in implementation, as well as the IDB's own constraints i.e. lack of expertise and unsuitability of some modes of finance. The project cycle in the IDB follows the classical way that starts with an official request followed by study preparation, appraisal, and approval of financing, signing of agreement, effectiveness, implementation and post evaluation. The paper underlined that regional projects have priority. The IDB deals with them either through providing reimbursable financing (loans or other modes) which is normally extended to governments or through grants (for limited amounts to cover technical assistance activities) which can be extended to governments or regional organizations.
15. The meeting received presentations from two Regional Economic Organizations. In their presentation CAEU and ECO gave details of the major challenges related to food security in their respective member countries and sub-region and included proposals and strategies with regard to how the food security situation might be improved. The two presentations highlighted the framework and the expected output of the on-going technical assistance provided by FAO to strengthen the Secretariats and member countries technical and institutional capabilities for formulating bankable projects related to food security and to lead a fruitful dialogue and collaboration with the development financing institutions.
16. The CAEU explained the strategic framework for food security in member countries, and highlighted the major priority areas for collaborative actions. The CAEU stressed on the important role of the private sector and civil societies in promoting and achieving sustainable food security goals. The CAEU demonstrated the need for integrating the RPFS into the existing organizing mechanism used for the Council. The preliminary results of the RPFS will be discussed during the Council Board Meetings and other meetings will be planned for, with the private sector participation to discuss bankable project ideas. The CAEU stressed the need to continue the dialogue on RPFS with Development Financing Institutions with special reference to the IDB with the technical support from FAO. The CAEU called upon the Development Financing institutions like IDB with the support of specialized technical agencies like FAO to discuss possibilities for providing the chance to REOs to present and discuss bankable project ideas to benefit from the guidance of the two organizations in that regard.
17. The ECO presented the major challenges facing the sustainable agricultural development and food security in the ECO region with emphasis on the Countries of Central Asia in addition to Azerbaijan and Afghanistan. The ECO highlighted the major priority areas for sustainable food security in the region. A stress was also made on the recommendation of the First Ministerial Meeting for Agriculture for the ECO countries and the Islamabad Declaration of July 2002, which explicitly recognized national food security and regional programmes for food security among the major priorities in the region. The ECO presented preliminary findings based on the collaboration with FAO for project ideas with a programme approach for RPFS. Livestock production and animal health as well as plant protection and integrated management were among the priorities mentioned by ECO. The Organization has also asked the Development Financing institutions lead by IDB and the technical specialized agencies lead by FAO to continue the current process of supporting the dialogue during the preparation of bankable projects for food security.
18. In addition to the specific recommendations related to the technical papers and to the presentations of the CAEU, ECO and IDB, there was an agreement among all concerned parties on a set of general recommendations that emerged during the general discussions and debates, as follows:
