The Strategic Framework for FAO 2000-2015 was adopted in 1999 to help member countries reach the World Food Summit (WFS) target of halving the world's undernourished by 2015. Guided by the Global Strategic Framework (GSF), the Organization's rolling medium-term plans and successive biennial programmes of work transformed agenda into action.
Four years into the GSF, it was felt that member countries of Asia-Pacific could be even better guided by a Regional Strategic Framework (RSF). Such an RSF would not be separate from the GSF, but would translate the GSF into regional actions, emphasizing the character, needs and trends of the region. It is therefore essentially an integral part of the GSF.
With this in mind, the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) embarked on a participatory process in April 2003 to forge an RSF for the Asia-Pacific region. In carrying out the work, interdisciplinarity and a broad-based participatory approach were stressed, as well as the need to broaden partnerships and alliances, and leverage resources.
We sounded out national counterparts, informed our regional partners and held extensive, in-depth discussions within RAP in a stepwise fashion to: assess major issues and trends; recognize challenges; identify priority areas; analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; formulate an implementation strategy; and prepare for monitoring and evaluation.
The product of this year-long effort is a document reiterating FAO's global vision and mission in sustainable agriculture and food security, and articulating the elements of strategy that FAO and its member countries in Asia and the Pacific might adopt to realize them.
Six thematic programme areas were identified to guide the Asia-Pacific region in national and collective actions towards achieving the WFS target. These are: restructuring of the agricultural sector; decentralizing governance in support of sustainable development; reducing vulnerability to disasters; promoting effective and equitable management, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources; strengthening biosecurity; and alleviating poverty in rice-based livelihood systems. Within each thematic area, the general rationale, goal, objectives, strategic elements, outcomes and impact indicators were constituted on the basis of the most pressing common challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region and our collective capacities to meet them.
It is important for the reader to understand at the outset what this document is and what it is not. The RSF is basically a set of priority areas for interdisciplinary action over and above RAP's comprehensive regular and field programme activities. It purports to give a guide for RAP to work with partners and regional member countries on some or all of the priority areas in pursuance of their own national agricultural development strategies.
The RSF is not a prescribed strategy for Asia and the Pacific. Nor are its six thematic areas the only ones that RAP will be collaborating on with member countries and regional and international partners, now or in the foreseeable future. The readers - policy-makers and senior executives in agriculture - are expected to take whatever is deemed useful to their unique country situations and for their own purposes.
RAP stands ready to work with partners, particularly with member countries individually and collectively, on these six priority areas for interdisciplinary action. We are confident of our capacity to mobilize the multidisciplinary expertise and attract the necessary resources within and outside the Organization to make a difference in sustainable agriculture and rural development for food security in the region through interventions on these priority areas.
He
Changchui
Assistant Director-General and
FAO Regional Representative for
Asia and the Pacific
