1. Annual Program Review
The Council approves the action of its Working Party which collaborated with the Director-General in the preparation of the 1949 Outline for the Article XI Reports from member governments. It considers that to make the Annual Review more fruitful at the next session of the Conference, careful preparation of findings and major issues by the Council will be required. In order to expedite the work of its next session, the Council has decided to establish a Preparatory Committee which will meet prior to the session (see Section XIV, Arrangements for the Seventh Session of the Council).
2. Regional Meetings
The Council attaches great importance to the pre-Conference meetings to be held in various regions. These meetings will assist member governments in preparing for effective participation in the work of the Conference, and particularly in the Annual Program Review. They will also afford an opportunity for discussing the problems of a regional character to which the Conference and its Commissions can not give adequate attention.
The Council concludes that the meetings should center upon the following broad groups of problems:
Review and discussion of the current food and agriculture situation in relation to the world situation and outlook.
Production, consumption and trade goals of member governments for 1950/ 1951, at least insofar as their major consumption and export products are concerned.
Specific measures and programs which the governments are planning to achieve these goals and, in relation thereto, the activities to be undertaken by FAO in the region to assist governments in developing such measures and programs.
In this connection, attention should be drawn to the need for improved statistical and intelligence services so that national analyses of goals would be on a more comparable basis and would in time make it possible to draw a more comprehensive world picture each year.
Selected problems of particular concern to the regions which member governments would recommend for discussion at the annual Conference, such as problems of inter-regional trade in food and agricultural products.
The Council approves the arrangements made for the above regional meetings which will be held in the Near East, the Far East and Latin America. It was understood that the calling of a regional meeting in Europe would be left to the discretion of the Director-General after further consultation with European Member Governments. No such meeting of the major exporting countries need be convened at this time.
