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The 12th Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Working Group) will be held at FAO headquarters in Rome from 18 to 20 January 2023. The meeting will be conducted in person and will open on Wednesday 18 January 2023 at 10:00 hours. The Session is being convened under the Regular Programme of the Organization. It will be held in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

It is intended to hold the Session in-person at FAO headquarters. However, should the conditions prevailing from the COVID-19 pandemic at the time of the Session prohibit physical meetings, the Session will be held virtually on the same dates. Participants will be informed by no later than 10 December 2022 of the need to hold the meeting virtually and are therefore advised to take the aforementioned into account when making their travel arrangements.

The Working Group was established by the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture for Food and Agriculture at its 7th Session in May 1997. The Eighteenth Regular Session of the Commission in October 2021 decided that the Working Group should meet prior to the next Regular Session of the Commission. Issues to be addressed by the Twelfth Session of the Working Group include:

• review of the implementation of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources;
• review of the status of the Domestic Animal Diversity Information System; and
• preparation of the Third Report on the State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

The Commission also requested the Working Group to explore:

• the role of genetic resources in mitigating of and adaptation to climate change;
• access and benefit-sharing for genetic resources; and
• “digital sequence information” and potential implications for the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources.

The Members of the Working Group and their Alternates, as elected by the Eighteenth Regular Session of the Commission in September 2021, are as follows:

Africa:  Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tunisia

• First Alternate: Uganda
• Second Alternate: Cameroon

Asia: China, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Korea

• First Alternate: Bangladesh
• Second Alternate: Thailand

Europe: Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland

• First Alternate: France
• Second Alternate: Slovenia

Latin America and the Caribbean: Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay

• First Alternate: Chile
• Second Alternate: Colombia

Near East: Iraq, Jordan, Sudan, Yemen

• First Alternate: Saudi Arabia
• Second Alternate: Syrian Arab Republic

North America: Canada, United States of America

Southwest Pacific: Fiji, Tonga

• First Alternate: Vanuatu
• Second Alternate: Samoa

According to the Statutes of the Working Group, Alternates replace, in the order in which they appear on the above list, any Member who has resigned and informed the Secretariat accordingly. Members are requested to confirm to the Secretariat in writing their participation or non-participation in the Working Group meeting. If a Member of the Working Group is not able to attend the meeting, and informs the Secretariat accordingly, the Member shall be replaced in a timely manner by one of the elected Alternates from the same region. In case a Member of the Working Group does not attend the meeting, the Working Group, in consultation with the region, may replace this Member, on an ad hoc basis, by a Member of the Commission from the same region that is present at the meeting.