The meeting was opened by Dr Stein Bie, Director, Research, Extension, and Training Division, FAO. He welcomed the participants and thanked them for agreeing to serve on the SC. He was of the view that the Steering Committee, with its recognized technical expertise and diverse backgrounds, would lend a great deal of credibility of GTOS and explained what the Co-sponsors and the Secretariat expected from this meeting:clear guidance on scientific and technical aspects of GTOS; advice on pilot projects and on the development of an implementation strategy; and, suggestions on administrative matters.
Dr. Bie reviewed the situation of the Secretariat over the last six months and explained the reasons why it was not possible to advertise the international vacancy announcement of the P5 GTOS Executive Secretary post. He proposed to bridge the gap for the first half of 1997 by providing Jeff Tschirley as Executive Secretary a.i. part- time, assisted by Anne Aubert as Programme Assistant full-time, and Hal Kibby as Senior Scientific Officer part time. During this period, FAO and the co-sponsors will make every effort to obtain sufficient funds so that the Secretariat can function effectively and the Executive Secretary post can be advertised.
Each Co-sponsor then reaffirmed its support to, and involvement in, the GTOS Programme. They explained that GTOS was established by them in response to mandates from their respective governing bodies, in order to have more co-ordination at the international level and reduce costs to individual countries. The Co-sponsors reported briefly on their expectations of GTOS and recommended that the overall structure should be kept simple and pragmatic.
