1. Background

The World Food Summit held in Rome in November 1996 was aimed to renew the global commitments to eliminate hunger and malnutrition and the achievement of sustainable food security for all people. The World Food Summit Plan of Action endorsed and adopted by 186 countries outlines seven key commitments for practical activities aimed at reducing hunger and malnutrition by the year 2015. These are in the areas of:

• General conditions for economic and social progress conducive to food security;
• Poverty eradication and access to adequate food;
• Sustainable increases in food production;
• Contribution of trade to food security;
• Preparedness, prevention and response to food emergencies;
• Optimal investment in human resources, sustainable production capacity and rural development;
• Cooperation in implementing and monitoring the Plan of Action

As a follow up to the World Food Summit Plan of Action, a Joint ANGOC-FAO Meeting was held in Bangkok in July 1997. Representatives from over 20 Asian NGOs alongwith FAO officers discussed specific ideas and activities for the follow up of the World Food Summit Action Plan. The meeting stressed on the involvement of NGOs and civil society organisations (CSO) in policy and decision making for food security related programmes. The key areas for collaboration between FAO and NGOs outlined as an outcome of the meeting are:

• Promotion of public awareness on peoples participation in food security, sustainable agriculture and rural development.
• Favorable policy framework
• Tripartite collaboration between FAO-GO-NGO for dialogue and joint field level programmes.

At the recently convened expert meeting on civil society involvement in follow up to the WFS, participants worked out three major areas for FAO-civil society collaboration, namely policy dialogue, mobilising public awareness and building partnerships in action. The meeting highlighted the growing role of regional and sub regional offices in promoting dialogue with civil society, and strongly recommends the establishment of a forum for regular interaction with CSO.

At the FAO-RAP level, a networking exercise was initiated as a follow up to the Joint ANGOC-FAO meeting by the Rural Development and Nutrition Units. It was aimed at building on already existing linkages with NGOs, POs and CSOs to assess the potentials for collaboration in food security, nutrition and rural development initiatives in the region. This joint activity of the two units worked under the premise that food security and rural development issues are interlinked and cannot be addressed in isolation. Such partnerships within FAO are indeed the starting points towards developing household food security for all by the year 2015, as mandated by FAO.

This report provides an overview of the ongoing activities to FAO RAP to strengthen FAO-NGO collaborations in the region. These activities were undertaken as per the attached Terms of Reference of the consultant (Annex - I).