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C 2003/I/PV |
Thirty-second Session |
Rome, 29 November – 9 December 2003 |
FIRST MEETING OF COMMISSION I |
1 December 2003 |
The First Meeting was opened at 15.45 hours
Ms Hedwig Wögerbauer
Chairperson of Commission I, presiding
La première séance est ouverte à 15 h 45
sous la présidence de Mme Hedwig Wögerbauer,
Président de la Commission I
Se abre la primera sesión a las 15.45 horas
bajo la presidencia de la Sra. H. Wögerbauer,
Presidente de la Comisión I
CHAIRPERSON
The General Committee has announced that Bulgaria, Mr Ilia Krastelnikov and Venezuela, Mr Carlos Pozzo Bracho are the Vice-Chairpersons of this meeting. I should also announce that Commission 1 has a Drafting Committee. The Drafting Committee will be made up of the following countries. I will read them out: Brazil, Thailand, Canada, Cameroon, Uruguay, China, France, Japan, Tunisia, New Zealand, Italy, Libya and Sudan. Then I have to announce that the competence of the European Community and its Member States is mixed for all the items of the Agenda of Commission 1. Member States have voting rights on the items 6, 7, 8, 10, 11. You can read this in the document INF 16/2003. Then I would like to tell you that I have been informed by the Resolutions Committee that there is a Resolution on Illegal Fishing, and I have also heard from the General Committee that there are minor problems, there are some drafting and other problems; therefore, I would like to ask people to let me know as soon as possible the composition of the Working Group to help me to resolve the problem. The composition, I call it the Friends of The Chair Group, which I want to have a composed by Regions, which I think would be good because New Zealand was proposing the Resolution to have New Zealand as Chair of this Committee, so please be so kind and announce to me from the seven regions who wants to take part in this. Let me call it not Working Group because we have quite a lot of working groups, I will call it Friends of the Chair Group to sort all the problems with the Resolution on Illegal Fisheries. So, please be so kind and let me know by 17.30 who will take part in this Friends of the Chair Group and then at the end of the meeting, I will announce at what time this group would start.
So, let me come now to our Agenda and before I announce the first item, I have to say that we are very late in the day and we have to pick up two very important points. So, I will ask people in their statements to be short and stick to the point. Let me first announce Agenda Item 6. First of all, I was told I have to seek for approval of the Agenda as it is. Can we approve the Agenda as it is? Seeing no comments the Agenda is approved as it stands.
So, now let me come to Agenda Item 6. The document before is C 2003/6 and it will be the Progress Report on Implementation of the FAO Agenda and Development Plan of Action 2002-2007. Let me now invite Mr Monyo, Assistant Director General, Sustainable Development Department, to introduce the item. You have the floor.
John MONYO (Assistant Director-General, Sustainable Development Department)
Distinguished Delegates, Observers, ladies and gentlemen it is my pleasure to introduce Item 6, the First Progress Report on Implementation of the FAO Agenda and Development Programme Plan of Action. The document number has already been mentioned by the Chair. As you recall the Conference at its 31st Session in November 2001, endorsed the new Agenda and Development Plan of Action 2002-2007 and requested FAO to present a Progress Report on its Implementation at this Session. The report is a corporate one, compiled by the Gender and Population Division in the Sustainable Development Department based on inputs from many different FAO units and Offices, both in Headquarters and the Region. I should like to note that an effort was made to make the report more analytical than those previously presented on Women and Population in Development, and we also tried to illustrate better the linkages between the corporate medium-term plan in the Gender and Development Plan of Action through graphic illustrations, showing the share of major output for each major programme linked to the Gender and Development Plan of Action.
As the report demonstrates, the focus in this 1st biennium has been on launching the plan at Headquarters and in the Regional Offices, strengthening related institutional mechanisms and other arrangements in building gender sensitivity and gender analyses skills of FAO staff at various levels. These are the areas where some progress has been made, but where a sustained effort is needed throughout the duration of the plan due to high staff turnover. In addition, to such institutional measures, many activities were initiated to directly support Member Countries in all Regions in the efforts of improving the status of rural women and farmers, in building capacity at country and regional levels for gender mainstreaming of policy and programme formulation.
The examples provided in Section 4 of the document are the range and nature of activities undertaken in support of each of the four long-term objectives of the plan of action. As the report had to be prepared before the completion of the biennium, it is too early to have a comprehensive assessment of actual outcomes and impact of these activities. It is expected that the newly launched corporate auto-evaluation exercise and the preparation of the corporate programme implementation report for the present biennium will offer opportunities for a more qualitative assessment of the progress made on incorporating a gender perspective in FAO's programmes.
We will also recall that the Agenda and Development Plan of Action constitutes an integral and complementary part of FAO's new programme model and it is closely linked to the corporate medium term plan. The linkage with the medium term plan is very specific through the cross references of selected major outputs. Implementation will be monitored on that basis. The plan also serves as the main instrument, for the operation lies in the priority area for action on gender and development as described in the medium-term plan in the Programme of Work and Budget documents. The explicit linkage to the medium-term plan which is further articulated in the biannual outputs, also allows for any automatic review and updating of the gender related commitments in the context of the regular roll-over of the medium-term plan.
The 18 percent increase in the number of major outputs from 181 to 214, that Technical Divisions themselves select for cross-referencing to the gender plan in rollover of the medium-term plan to 2004 to 2009 compared with the medium-term plan 2002 to 2007 is at least a quantative indication of enhanced awareness amongst staff of the relevance of gender to FAO's work. They firmly believe that no enduring solution can be found to world hunger if we do not recognize and take into account that men and women should participate in and benefit equally from agriculture and rural development. Please to note that the commitment to the advancement of rural women and to gender equality in agriculture and rural development was reaffirmed by FAO's members in the political declaration adopted at World Food Summit five years later in June 2002. It is a fact that most of FAO's activities in support of rural women and farmers, and institutional and gender mainstreaming would still require leadership, initiative, and proactive involvement and support by the Gender and Population Division.
While the Division does its utmost to use wisely its limited regular budget, representing less than one percent of FAO's regular programme resources, additional support is of vital importance to the fulfillment of its mission. Allow me, therefore, to take this opportunity to acknowledge with appreciation the extra budget funding provided in the present biennium by Belgium, Finland, Italy, Norway, Netherlands and Sweden in support of the Gender and Population Programme.
Before concluding, I also wish to acknowledge the right to support and collaboration of two non-technical units within FAO, mainly the office of the Programme of Budget and Evaluation and the Staff Development and Training Unit of the Human Resources Policy Division. Furthermore, the dedication and commitment of many staff who have served as focal points for gender main-streaming in their units for this biennium also merit mentioning on this occasion.
Last, but not least, let me take this opportunity to introduce my colleague Ms Ekaas, the Director of the Gender and Population Division. We look forward to hearing your views and comments on this report and to respond to questions or queries you may have. Thank you for your kind attention.
CHAIRPERSON
After this introduction the floor is open for intervention. Let me draw the intervention list first. So I have seen Italy, Mexico, Poland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States. I have seen India, Finland, Nigeria. So, I think we can start for the moment. First, I would like to take Italy.
Eugenio CAMPO (Italy)
I am speaking on behalf of the European Community and its fifteen Member States. The ten acceding countries to the European Union associate themselves to this statement. First of all let me express our compliments for your nomination as the Chairman of this important Commission. We wish you very warmly a very productive work.
The European Union considers gender equality an essential element for the achievement of a social and people-centred sustainable development. We believe that gender inequality is a major obstacle for the eradication of poverty. As the Millennium Declaration states, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women are effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable. We are convinced that FAO has a key role to play for the advancement and empowerment of rural women and for the achievement of greater equality in the agricultural and rural sector.
We are pleased to see that since the endorsement by the 31st Session of the Conference of the FAO's Gender and Development Plan of Action, FAO has been committed to making the Plan the main policy instrument to strengthen responsibility and accountability for gender mainstreaming throughout the organization. Greater attention has been given to addressing gender concerns in the Medium Term Plan formulation process and in all FAO programmes. We consider the identification of key outputs related to gender issues in the MTP as particularly important.
We have carefully analysed the Progress Report and welcome regular reporting on the progress of the implementation of FAO Gender and Development Plan of Action also in the future. The report shows clearly several activities carried out by FAO to translate its commitment to rural women's empowerment and gender equality into concrete actions. We would like to express our appreciation for the work done. However, we would like also to see a more analytical approach in the report explaining for example as to what extent FAO has succeeded in reaching the ambitious objectives of the Action Plan, which difficulties were met, and what are the lessons learned so far. In our opinion, the gender issue and the equality of men and women are of great importance in the rural development. The report reveals that many of FAO's gender-related activities are focused mainly on women. In addition to that, FAO should also focus on policy level and decision making to reach sustainable results.
We believe that activities carried out by FAO to foster women's access to resources, including land and credit, technology and training are key elements for the improvement of a rural livelihoods and of food security.
As we have said, more attention should be given by FAO to the economic empowerment of poor women in rural areas and to an effective mainstreaming of the gender dimension in the fight against poverty and hunger. It is important for FAO to give adequate support to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers process with particular reference to the gender dimension of development. We also like to encourage FAO to intensify its work in addressing more specifically the gender dimension of HIV/AIDS in agricultural policies.
Finally, the European Union would also like to underline the importance for FAO to work in partnership with civil society and NGOs, particularly women's NGOs and associations, which have so far worked relentlessly to promote women's rights and equality at national, regional and international levels.
We appreciate the major efforts made in considering the Gender and Development Plan of Action as part of the policy guidance provided to all FAO programme managers in the context of the MTP and of the PWB. We note with satisfaction the fact that the Gender and Development Plan of Action has been the principal instrument for operationalizing the Priority Area for Interdisciplinary Action on Gender and Development.
The report shows that there are a number of challenges that still remain to be addressed. In particular we support the reports final observations of what still needs to be done in order to achieve effective gender mainstreaming and especially the necessity of having senior and middle management's genuine support and commitment for putting the plan into practice. We encourage FAO to include gender analysis training as regular feature of the corporate staff development programme, both for men and women. To be efficient and effective in gender activities and to learn from experiences of other partners, close cooperation with other agencies would be needed.
The report indicates that measurements of gender mainstreaming are almost exclusively quantitative. We would like to stress the importance of the use of verifiable indicators to measure the effective progress against expected results. We encourage FAO to strengthen its work aimed at developing a core set of indicators, drawing on ongoing work in other organizations, to assess gender mainstreaming and to use qualitative appraisal methods. We would also like to draw the attention to the need for members to be assisted by FAO in the collection of gender-disaggregated data.
Sra. Ursula DOZAL ALVARADO (México)
Hemos analizado el informe del Plan de Acción de la FAO sobre Género y Desarrollo y deseamos agradecer a la FAO la elaboración del informe. Sin embargo, la delegación de México desea solicitar a la FAO la incorporación del documento final del período extraordinario de sesiones de la Asamblea General de la ONU, titulado ¨Mujeres 2000: igualdad entre los sexos, desarrollo y paz para el siglo XXI¨, conocido como Beijing + 5, en el párrafo 2 del apartado II del mencionado Plan de Acción de la FAO. Así mismo, la delegación de México desea señalar el rezago existente en la generación de indicadores que permitan evaluar de manera integral el impacto de los programas y proyectos implementados por la FAO sobre los hombres y las mujeres. Al mismo tiempo, es necesario reforzar los programas de cooperación y fortalecer la capacidad técnica mediante cursos impartidos al personal de las oficinas regionales, a todos los niveles, para la incorporación de la planificación estratégica con enfoque participativo y de género. Por último, dada la importancia de la información específica y desagregada por sexo para la elaboración de los informes de la FAO, la delegación de México desea solicitar a la FAO una mayor asistencia técnica para las instituciones nacionales encargadas de la recopilación, análisis y difusión de datos estadísticos, a fin de que se cuente con información específica y desagregada por sexo.
Ms Malgorzata PIOTROWSKA (Poland)
The idea of the FAO Gender and Development Plan of Action consists of the right to change the previous approach from women to development, to gender in development. In the present plan, priority areas of FAO intervention and key actions in those areas which should be undertaken were very precisely determined. The mission and context of the gender plan of action 2007, helps FAO Member Nations to mainstream gender issues into the sustainable agricultural rural development. The Plan recognizes that the full and equal participation of all groups of society in development is essential. It is worth stressing the innovative value of the method elaborated by FAO, Women and Population Division Methodology called SEAGA. Experts from FAO's Women and Population Division visited Poland and the main aim of this visit was to give the practical skills to our local extension officers on how to formulate and how to introduce into the development planning process goals and means that are better targeted to meet both women's and men's needs and constraints. Now we can say that we have specialists, and awareness that the planning policy should be re-examined from the perspective of gender relation.
After the last parliamentary election in Poland, we can say that the existing gender disparities in the decision-making process were improved. In parliament, women's rate rose from 11 to 19 percent. We know that there are still some areas where gender as well as rural urban disparities exist. For example, the effective and wider use of new information and communication technology is needed. No equal opportunities for women and youth on the labour markets still exist. Higher unemployment, lower income, insufficient social rural infrastructure, the gender inequality and policy and decision-making processes at different levels of planning and management can still be met. The necessity for sustainable development, environmental planning and natural resources management to prepare rural farmers, men and women, for commercialization and market economy rules. Ecological processes and the conservation of biodiversity are the common goals of the rural communities, NGOs, research institutes, extension services and policy-makers.
We know the importance of agricultural statistics in rural development planning and a need for data disaggregation from gender bias. The FAO Gender and Development Plan of Action is a source of information for Member Nations on how to identify and address gender issues at all levels of planning and development processes. The initiative of exchange of good practice examples with respect to gender mainstreaming between Member Nations is worth supporting. Finally, I would like to inform you that during the Summit on Economic Forum of the Central European initiative, which took place in Warsaw a few days ago, there was a panel session on women and entrepreneurs in a wider Europe. The panel session discussed and focussed on business opportunities and the situation of women and entrepreneurs in different countries, problems of rural women's policies, initiatives undertaken by governments, women's business associations and other actors to build a wider Europe. The member of the Executive Board of the FAO Working Party on Women took an active role in the above meeting informing the audience about the working party's latest activities and possibilities of cooperation within the European region.
Yoshitaka SUMI (Japan)
Japan appreciates that FAO has aggressively introduced gender perspectives into every concerned programme and promoted gender mainstreaming in FAO's activities. As a kind of cross-sector issue in development programmes it is appropriate that gender perspectives have been incorporated into FAO's strategic frameworks, the Medium Term Plan and Programme of Work and Budget 2002 to 2003.
It is also appreciated that during the last two years, FAO has implemented many kinds of gender oriented or gender concerned studies, seminars, meetings, and field activities under PWB in 2002 and 2003. As a result of those works, it is supposed that a large amount of information on gender and development has already been gathered and accumulated.
So Japan would like to suggest that from now, FAO should make much more focus on practical integration of gender considerations and activities into actual field programmes such as SPFS, rather than the general studies, signals and meetings on gender. It is our understanding that such integration of gender consideration and practical activities would often produce a better performance of such field programmes.
Roger CORNFORTH (New Zealand)
New Zealand is aware and appreciative of the work being undertaken by FAO within its Gender and Development Plan of Action. However, we find the report disappointing in its lack of analysis of impact, information on the concrete results of activities, and FAO resources that have been specifically committed to the plan. We note with particular disappointment the focus of the report on goal three of the NDGs, especially when we are aware of FAO's involvement in the UN inter-agency network on women, and gender equality's task force on gender and the NDGs. We believe that the report should also comment on the FAO's Gender and Development Plan of Action to the achievement of other NDGs such as goal one: eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; goal four: reducing child mortality; goal five: improving maternal health; and goal seven: ensuring environmental sustainability.
New Zealand believes that the future reports should better analyse the impact of gender and development action planning to reflect the FAO's contribution to the achievement of each of these goals for women and children as well as where and how FAO is actually making a difference. We recognize the lack of adequate monitoring systems in disaggregated data collection identified in the report and elaborated on by FAO in the introduction to this item, as being a particular barrier to achieving this and we urge FAO to establish quantitative and qualitative monitoring systems as a matter of some urgency. Gender mainstreaming also requires FAO to ensure that adequate and appropriate resources are committed to gender mainstreaming and that all managers and staff proactively support the plan if it is to be implemented to its fullest extent.
Ms Sharon KOTOK (United States of America)
The United States congratulates FAO on its Progress Report on Implementation of the FAO Gender and Development Plan of Action for the period 2002 to 2007. We are pleased to endorse the report. We appreciate the description that the institutional measures put in place to support implementation of the plan, the linkages between the plan's objectives in FAO's major programmes and examples of actions undertaken during the present biennium.
We commend FAO for an active and productive gender and development programme and recognize a leadership of the FAO Gender and Population Division as well as a collaboration of FAO field and headquarters units in working with countries to achieve such a diverse array of innovative projects for women. This has resulted in an impressive 18 percent increase in attention to gender and outputs under the Medium-Term Plan.
The United States supports the observations and recommendations contained in the report, particularly; the need for sustained attention and proactive support from the middle and senior managers to gender mainstreaming and for accountability for promoting gender equality in FAO's work, the need for a clearer division of responsibilities between FAO's gender and population divisions and the units with responsibility for programme planning, budgeting, evaluation and reporting. Also for the need to assist FAO Members so they can generate and analyse gender disaggregated data, the need for better qualitative analysis in order to better determine the impact of FAO's programmes on reducing gender disparity and finally the need to incorporate gender training as a regular part of staff development and to include gender analysis in relevant FAO post descriptions.
With respect to collection and analysis of data, all technical units should collect gender and age disaggregated data on the impacts of their field programmes, and other relevant activities and gender analysis should be integrated within FAO's surveys and mapping exercises on vulnerability, poverty, malnutrition and food security.
We would like to see FAO build on its strong performance in the gender area to further refine its organizational arrangements and procedures to foster gender mainstreaming in both the regular and field programmes; how to effectively distribute an institutionalized technical and accountability responsibilities for gender is a challenge for all organizations. Regarding internal oversight, increased role for FAO units for programme, budget and evaluation, as well as for auditors, which are already strong collaborators with the FAO Gender Unit, would be helpful to enhance managerial accountability and monitoring, evaluation and reporting of results. Again, we would like to emphasize that we are pleased to endorse this report.
Sanjay KAUL (India)
India welcomes the focus on gender related issues and supports the institutional measures and arrangements made by FAO towards the implementation of the Development Plan of Action. For us in India, this focus has added significance given the importance of agriculture in our economy with this sector accounting for about 25 percent of our GDP. As for the latest estimate of all economically active women in India, as many as 80 percent are employed in the agricultural sector, compared to only 63 percent men. In fact with the increasing diversification of the rural economy, this trend is likely to extend further.
We strongly believe that apart from women who are employed formally in the agricultural sector, virtually every adult female member of the households of small farmers, who constitute more than 80 percent of the total farm households, is involved in agricultural operations in some way or the other. It is in our endeavour to see that this process of feminisation of agriculture proceeds in a manner where the rights, privileges and interest of such women are adequately protected and promoted. The Government of India, in our continuing effort to engender the agricultural development process, has made attempts to identify the major constraints which hamper the productivity of women farmers and has initiated measures which were empowering the women farmers through training and extension services. Our national agriculture policy also highlights the incorporation of gender issues in the Agriculture Development Agenda, recognizing women's role as farmers, producers, as users of technology, as active agents on marketing, processing and the storage of food, and as agriculture labourers.
We have also constituted an Expert Committee on Women in Agriculture to consider and give advice on matters relating to various policies and strategies in order to make them gender friendly. We urge the FAO to assist its members in developing and implementing national and regional policies, strategies and programmes for agricultural and rural development that are consistent with the millennium development goals, especially on gender equality. We would welcome the assistance of FAO in mainstreaming gender concerns in our field programmes, partnerships and our field services.
Towards this end, FAO may like to provide assistance and analysis of statistics from national agricultural censuses and surveys. It may also be in the fitness of things if FAO looks more closely on the unpaid contributions of the members of the small households and suggests innovative packages of promoting the interest of this hitherto neglected group. India endorses the first progress report on the implementation of the FAO Gender and Development Plan of Action 2002 – 2007.
Hannu KYRÖLÄINEN (Finland)
Finland speaks here on behalf of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. We also want to express our support to the statement here by the Delegation of Italy on behalf of the European Community and its fifteen Member States and the ten acceding countries.
The Nordic countries attach great importance to the central role of women in rural development and rural livelihoods because well-balanced, sustainable development requires equal participation of and equal opportunities for both women and men. FAO has rightly taken the challenge to contribute to the gender equality goal presented also in the Millennium Declaration and in the Millennium Development Goals.
The Progress Report on the implementation of the FAO Gender and Development Plan of Action reflects the considerable ambition level the Organization places on the gender issue. On one hand it aims at enhancing and improving the gender analysis capacity at different levels of the FAO Organization and on the other, mainstreaming gender in FAO programming, monitoring and evaluation reporting.
We have carefully read the report and appreciate the work done so far, however, while the report discusses the activities carried out, a deeper analysis of achievements and problems remains limited. As systematic monitoring and evaluation are of utmost importance, in the future we would like to see FAO dedicate special attention to regular reporting based on carefully designed quantitative and qualitative indicators.
In our view, the two main functions of the Plan of Action need a keen follow-up. These are the advancement of gender awareness and gender analysis capacity within FAO, and the progress on equality and use of productive resources, land tenure and decision making.
A step in this direction is that gender prospective has been listed as one of the main criteria for assessing FAO programmes. FAO has done commendable work in increasing women's awareness and empowering women economically. There is a threat, however, that if gender and equality are considered to be only practically useful for women, the sustainability of results will suffer. It is therefore advisable to balance carefully between the field work and the work on decision-making policy and advocacy levels.
An issue requiring utmost attention is the prevalence of HIV/AIDS which affects food production, utilization of natural resources and rural development in many development countries in the short and medium term. The quantitative and qualitative deterioration of the labour force reduces production and increases women's workload which already is intolerable. To link this with food insecurity, poverty and AIDS strikes women in a particularly severe way.
The report reveals that gender elements have been included in FAO staff training and specific gender courses have been organized. Within the Organization it is of special importance that the staff, at all levels, follow up and ensure that the gender prospective has been mainstreamed.
A useful approach in training might be to emphasize the positive impact of gender awareness on sustainability of results of the various activities, which means that gender roles, men's and women's different positions, opportunities and constraints are taken into account in programming, implementation and evaluation.
Gender disaggregated statistics are essential for understanding the reality of rural life. As we are intensifying our fight against poverty and hunger, we recommend FAO to intensify towards the production of gender disaggregated data. By doing so, FAO can give guidance to other international organizations.
Finally, the Nordic countries would like to emphasize the indispensable need for close collaboration among the United Nations agencies and other partners to achieve a coherent and comprehensive approach and to contribute in a constructive way to the development of gender equality.
Baba Fada ALKALI (Nigeria)
Nigeria would like to join the others in congratulating you for guiding the proceedings of this commission. Ours is a comment. We did not have the opportunity to make an in-depth analysis of this document which we have only just received. However, to fight hunger, all hands must be on deck and we all know the role of women in agriculture. Their role in production, in processing, in marketing, in child and nutrition, is a vital role that women play in agricultural development. In some countries they constitute a large proportion of the population—up to fifty percent. This is a sector of the population that cannot be neglected and a lot needs to be done to catch up in that area.
We were told in the introduction that certain areas of focus have already been identified by the population and in the division. One of the areas is the launching of the programme in the regions and in the Member countries, strengthening institutional mechanisms and improving the skills of the FAO staff involved. We hope in the implementation, these areas of focus will be brought to action so that the programme is kick-started as early as possible.
Ismail IBRAHIM (Malaysia)
Malaysia commends the effort taken by FAO in mainstreaming gender perspectives into its programme planning and in assisting members to promote gender equality in agriculture and the rural sectors. Increasing women's access to productive resources and promoting gender equality at policy and decision-making levels are important strategies to alleviate poverty among rural women.
Exchange of expertise of consultants in the fields of post-harvest technology and product development is greatly welcome to assist in ways of reducing waste of perishable commodities and to convert these raw materials to marketable and quality products. Regional workshops need to be organized to share ideas on the development of value added agro-based downstream activities, as this is a field where rural women can have good access.
Malaysia recognizes the importance of generating sufficient gender disaggregated data. The collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data and information is vital in the formulation of gender responsive agriculture policies, Thus, it is very important for members of countries available to enhance measures in the development of a sex- disaggregated database particularly a database on the agricultural sector.
Lastly, we regard with great importance the need to develop accountability within the Organization and therefore to identify a clear division of the responsibility of different actors on gender mainstreaming to enhance managerial accountability as well as a monitoring of results.
Mme Lydie ROSSINI VAN HISSENHOVEN (Conseil international des femmes)
C'est au nom du Conseil international des femmes que je désire féliciter le Secrétariat pour le document C 2003/6 dont nous sommes saisis.
Depuis de longues années, le Conseil international des femmes (CIF) a fait pression auprès des gouvernements, par l'intermédiaire de ses conseils nationaux affiliés, sur la question parité hommes-femmes et a fait une déclaration dans ce sens lors du Sommet mondial de l'alimentation de 1996, insistant sur l'étymologie des mots "égalité" et "équité". Nous soutenons donc pleinement le point 4 concernant le plan d'action et ses quatre objectifs.
Objectif 1: Parité hommes-femmes en matière d'accès à une alimentation suffisante, saine et nutritive.
L'Australie et la Nouvelle Zélande ont reçu des informations et envoyé des propositions écrites aux autorités pour l'alimentation sur le maintien d'un approvisionnement en "denrées sans risques". L'Alimentation Australie/Nouvelle Zélande (AANZ) travaille en coopération avec les autorités mondiales chargées de l'alimentation, y compris avec le CODEX Alimentarius de la FAO. Une brochure concernant les aliments génétiquement modifiés a été distribuée aux consommateurs.
L'Autriche a souligné l'importance de la parité des genres et des différences entre les besoins nutritionnels des femmes et des hommes. Elle a fait des commentaires sur les effets de l'alcool, sur la bonne nutrition, le choix des aliments, les enfants et les besoins en calcium et les troubles de l'alimentation.
Le Bénin a fourni des informations sur les ressources et les formations en recherche agricole destinée aux femmes rurales pour les aider à transformer les ressources naturelles en entreprises commerciales dans le but d'éliminer les contraintes afin que les hommes et les femmes puissent avoir les mêmes bénéfices de leur travail et la même rémunération lorsqu'ils utilisent les ressources nationales.
Le Congo, en dépit des difficultés causées par les conflits, a organisé des séminaires sur la transformation des produits locaux et leur utilisation adéquate dans la préparation d'aliments traditionnels sur tout le territoire. Le Conseil national a également fourni des directives aux conseillers techniques.
Israël a souligné l'importance des femmes assumant de plus en plus des positions de prises de décisions quant à la nutrition et à l'environnement.
L'Italie a rendu compte des projets régionaux sur l'éducation nutritionnelle, tels que les cours pour la formation des professeurs et le contrôle des repas scolaires par les membres des commissions.
L'Afrique du Sud a expliqué que le Ministère de la santé approuvait la vitaminisation des aliments et que l'étiquetage des aliments génétiquement modifiés est actuellement à l'étude.
L'Espagne a inclus la nutrition à l'ordre du jour de la prochaine Assemblée mondiale sur le vieillissement.
La Turquie a organisé des réunions sur des sujets liés à la vie des femmes, ainsi que les droits des consommateurs, l'obésité et la nutrition.
L'Argentine apporte son soutien continu à la campagne mondiale contre la faim et contribue également, grâce à son Comité "Madriñas de Lectura", à l'entretien des potagers que chacune des nombreuses écoles tente d'entretenir par le travail des enseignants et des étudiants qui cultivent la nourriture apportée sur la table.
Le Conseil national du Congo a participé à la Journée panafricaine de la femme avec la préparation et la présentation des mets locaux typiques de chaque région. Au cours de 2001, l'OFDZA (Organisation des femmes pour le développement de Zanaga) s'est affiliée à la FAO, au PAM et au Programme national de lutte contre le Sida (PNLS). Grâce à ces organisations internationales, le Conseil national a pu fournir aux paysans de Zanaga des coquelets, du matériel aratoire, des semences et des denrées alimentaires.
Le Bénin nous a fourni tout un dossier sur les activités de la Journée mondiale de l'alimentation et de la Journée mondiale de la femme rurale (15 et 16 octobre 2002), qui ont réuni plus de 1312 femmes rurales (femmes et filles productrices agricoles, transformatrices de produits agricoles, pêcheuses, éleveuses, revendeuses, etc) ainsi que 122 hommes (producteurs agricoles).
Le paragraphe 21(i) nous intéresse particulièrement car nous insistons sur l'accès à la terre et à la propriété et aimerions avoir des informations sur les résultats obtenus dans ce sens.
Objectif 3: Le paragraphe 23 nous tient particulièrement à cœur, ainsi que les incidences du Sida et de la sécurité alimentaire dans les zones rurales. Des séminaires et des programmes éducatifs dans les écoles ont été organisés sur ce sujet afin de sensibiliser les femmes rurales.
Objectif 4: Parité hommes-femmes en matière d'emploi agricole et autre dans les zones rurales.
Paragraphe 28(i): Nous souhaitons que la publication de la FAO intitulée "Améliorer les capacités de gestion financière des ménages ruraux" puisse faciliter l'accès aux prêts et puisse rétablir le déséquilibre entre hommes et femmes.
Paragraphe 29(iv): L'Inde a organisé des expositions de fleurs et de légumes, promu l'embellissement des villes, la plantation d'arbres; elle a également fait prendre connaissance des mauvais usages du polyéthylène.
Paragraphe 30: Nous sommes concernés également par ce paragraphe se référant à l'autonomisation des femmes et tenons à souligner que plusieurs Conseils nationaux sont engagés sur ce point.
L'Indonésie a organisé des séminaires sur l'autonomisation des femmes et la formation en technologies de l'information, et les Philippines sur la formation de coopératives pour les aider à passer du micro crédit au crédit courant. L'Inde a organisé également des séminaires sur ce sujet et sur les droits légaux des femmes et la parité de genre.
Le Kenya a publié des livrets d'information sur la discrimination envers les femmes et les groupes marginalisés (tels que les handicapés) et sur l'éducation civique.
Les Conseils nationaux de Singapour, de Corée et autres ont travaillé sur l'intégration des genres. Les membres du Conseil national autrichien ont participé aux conférences sur "l'intégration de la parité des genres".
L'importance des femmes dans les prises de décisions à tous les niveaux a été reconnue par de nombreux conseils nationaux. La Thaïlande a participé à des réunions de femmes maires et conseillères travaillant sur le respect de l'égalité des droits des femmes, l'égalité de la participation des femmes dans les prises de décisions; elle a également participé à une conférence de la CESAP (Commission économique et sociale pour l'Asie et le Pacifique) sur les problèmes de discrimination des femmes handicapées. Les pays européens du CECIF (Centre européen du Conseil international des femmes) travaillent ensemble sur l'autonomisation; le Conseil national de la Grande Bretagne a présenté à son Gouvernement une résolution politique sur ce sujet.
Le Conseil national de Malte organise des cours visant à renforcer l'autonomie des femmes et a fait pression, avec succès, pour que se tienne une session parlementaire spéciale dédiée aux femmes et à leurs besoins. Il a également institué une étude importante sur la parité des genres dans leurs ambiances de travail.
Le Conseil national d'Azerbaïdjan a illustré son travail sur la protection des droits des femmes.
De nombreux pays ont continué à travailler afin de supprimer toutes formes de discrimination envers les femmes basées sur la race et le genre, pour les libérer des abus des droits humains tels que le trafic, les mariages forcés et les pratiques culturelles dangereuses. Une plus grande reconnaissance et un plus grand respect des droits fondamentaux de la femme ont été une partie importante de l'ordre du jour de la Commission des Nations Unies sur la condition de la femme et c'est là un domaine de travail important pour le CIF et ses nombreux conseils nationaux affiliés.
Matallah Sabane TRAORE (Mali)
Tout d'abord, je voudrais me joindre à tous mes prédécesseurs pour féliciter la FAO de nous avoir présenté ce rapport sur la parité hommes-femmes et développement 2002-2007. Je voudrais ensuite souligner que les femmes rurales constituent la catégorie sociale la plus pauvre et représentent également la majorité de la population et, à ce titre, nous devons nous convaincre qu'il ne peut y avoir de développement en dehors des femmes, même si la question constitue de plus en plus une priorité pour le Gouvernement. Nous avons constaté que depuis Beijing, il y a eu des ministères chargés spécifiquement de la promotion de la femme. Dans mon pays, il y a un Ministère de la promotion de la femme, de l'enfant et de la famille et nous avons eu beaucoup plus de parlementaires femmes, des maires femmes et même beaucoup plus de ministres. Je crois que ce sont des avancées notables qu'il faut souligner, mais il n'en demeure pas moins que la femme reste toujours le parent pauvre du développement.
À ce titre, la FAO doit tenir compte de toutes les contraintes auxquelles elle est confrontée et devrait apporter une assistance à l'élaboration, surtout au plan juridique, d'un certain nombre de textes permettant d'améliorer la condition de la femme, notamment en ce qui concerne l'accès à la terre et l'accès au crédit agricole. La FAO doit également aider les gouvernements à renforcer les organisations professionnelles des femmes rurales qui sont de plus en plus dynamiques et contrôlent pratiquement toutes les filières agricoles les plus intéressantes, et pour ce faire, un appui conséquent devrait être apporté à l'amélioration des technologies de transformation, à l'accès à l'eau potable et à l'énergie, ce qui constitue aujourd'hui l'une des plus grandes contraintes. C'est une véritable corvée pour les femmes rurales et je remercie vivement la FAO de nous avoir donné l'occasion de nous exprimer et d'avoir accordé une attention toute particulière à la condition de la femme qui constitute aujourd'hui l'un des plus grands défis pour le pays. Grâce à la prise en compte de ces aspects, nous pourrons résoudre de nombreux problèmes de développement.
CHAIRPERSON
Is there anyone else who wants to speak? Recognizing no one, I would like to give the floor to you Mr Monyo or Ms Ekaas to make some comments please. First Mr Monyo, Assistant Director-General, you have the floor.
John MONYO (Assistant-Director General, Sustainable Development Department)
Well first I would like to thank the delegations who spoke on the general support of the first progress report, we note and appreciate the guidance given, we also note some of the concerns raised and leave the concerns for Ms Ekaas to solve. But I see that we need to have more quality than quantity to indicators and at least develop a quorum. We need to have a more analytical approach. We try to say that we are more analytical than before but obviously we need to do more. I agree and I appreciate this. There is great need for greater focus on policy analysis and advice. There is more need for collation and analysis of gender and data. The issue of HIV and AIDS in fact brought in the question of poverty and the linkage with the disease and the importance of partnership. All these are relevant issues which we will need to work on and also, of course, it did bring out the question of the division of labour. So these are some of things which I will ask Miss Ekaas to dwell on.
Ms Sissel EKAAS (Director, Gender and Population Division)
Thank you very much Mr Monyo and good afternoon to all delegates. It is heartening to hear under my hat as the cooperative focal point on gender mainstreaming that there is a cross regional support for a pro-active role for FAO in the promotion of gender equality in agriculture and rural development. I will try perhaps to take on some of the questions mindful of the time limitations, but there were some important points raised by several of you that I would like to make some comments on.
If I start with Italy on behalf of the EU there is clearly still room for improvement in the reporting format making it even more analytical. I think we did try to bring out some of the constraints which are already reflected in the challenges that we still have to face up to and continue working on. Certainly as we move into the second biennium, we will also have more information available to start drawing some lessons and learn that we can be more explicit in future reporting. You made a particular recommendation that FAO, from a gender perspective, get more involved and contribute more to the poverty reduction strategy processes at the country level. This was in fact a comment raised also two years ago when the plan was tabled for endorsement by the Conference.
Now I think that all of you are probably aware that the first generation of the PRSPs had a larger problem from an FAO perspective which was that it did not really take very much into account the role of agriculture as a sector to contribute to poverty reduction. I think this is gradually changing and there is a growing recognition of the important role that agriculture plays also as a basis for further diversifying the rural economy. And I think the recent statement by the African Union committing themselves to devoting ten percent to agriculture of domestic resources, will certainly help bring in this agriculture perspective, and then underneath there the gender perspective in agriculture and rural development, more explicitly in the future poverty reduction strategy processes and certainly the Gender and Population Division will be very pleased and will endeavour to work closely with the Policy Assistance Division of FAO which is the focal point in FAO for PRSPs.
You also mentioned that more focus should indeed be put at the policy level in general, and for that purpose I just want to mention two more recent developments. On the one hand we have developed with the Policy Assistance Division a specific social economic and gender analysis handbook for training of micro-level decision makers and policy makers and we are hoping that, that will be used extensively in our policy assistance work and training at country level in FAO member countries. Also only last week we had a workshop in Maputo with 25 policy makers analyzing what are implications for agricultural policy of the increasing impacts in rural areas on HIV/AIDS and having a responsibility in FAO both on the focal point on gender and on the focal point on HIV/AIDS. This allows us to bring in both perspectives when we discuss with policy makers and so that was a very recent workshop taking place in Maputo, together with the Economic Policy Analysis Division. So we are trying to work more at policy level, but certainly more can be done.
Japan raised the issue that now we should have a lot of information and documentation and maybe we should focus more on explicit integration of what we have learnt and what we know in FAO Field Programme, and in fact you mentioned the Special Programme on Food Security and I just wanted to provide one example of a recent development where we have conducted a Regional Workshop for irrigation engineers and national staff working in the Special Programme on Food Security both in Anglophone Africa and in Asia training these people in gender analysis in farmers' water management. It was very successful, generated a lot of interest and participation from national project staff and we are hoping that when they have gone through these two rounds of training, that our programme provided, that they will be in a much better position to explicitly integrate gender analysis and gender issues in their work in the SPFS. So that is just one recent example of how we have tried to do precisely what you were asking.
There have been a lot of comments on the issues of measurement and indicators, many of you raise them, we are very conscious of the need to evolve a framework for FAO to better measure the impact of its programmes. We do not have a cooperate framework in place at the moment into which we can actually integrate the agenda concerned and more gender sensitive indicators. It is work in progress, my colleagues from the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit are sitting behind and are very conscious of this challenge and certainly I think that the whole issue of indicators is pioneering work for FAO. There are gender indicators that have been developed for the social sectors, there are none as of yet who have actually achieved the marrying of social indicators with biophysical indicators which is the interface in which FAO is working. You are working with natural resources management and we need to bring these together.
Our Division has done some pioneering work in this area and we have field tested some gender sensitive indicators for natural resources management specifically on land and biodiversity and as they say, we are very much working on this also in an inter-agency framework with other colleagues in the UN system, basically facing the same challenge of how you measure results and achievements and the impact of gender streaming.
A particular mention was made by New Zealand on the focus on the Millennium Development Goals and I certainly take note of your guidance of making more explicit in future reporting, the contribution of the Plan of Action to the achievement of the various Millennium Development Goals. Obviously as part of the comprehensive contribution that FAO will be making in this area. We are a member of an inter-agency gender Millennium Development Goals task force, FAO is a member of that and we are just now in fact developing a paper looking not only at goal three but looking at several of the goals which we consider relevant to FAO's explicit mandate and looking precisely at the gender perspective in FAO's role in that context. So hopefully by the time we meet next time in two years we will have more to say about that.
There were a number of comments about the importance of increased access to land credit technology. Obviously we very much agree with this and we have a number of activities in support of this. I just wanted to draw your attention to, I do not know how many of you were here, on Saturday listening to the Director of the Institute of Women in Nicaragua receiving the Eduardo Saouma prize. This was as a result in fact of a TCP programme that we had had with that Institute precisely in reviewing legislation towards amending it in a very explicit way so that it would provide for joint titling for women and men in terms of access of ownership of land, and also amending it specifically in favour of female headed households being able to obtain property of land directly and so, this is one very concrete impact where analysis and studies, supported by FAO, led to a concrete legislated change in the country. And of course we are very happy about that and want to see more countries taking explicit steps in that direction.
I was very gratified to hear the intervention by India because I think while the Gender and Development Plan of Action is primarily a framework for FAO in its role as Secretariat to put its own house in order, to build skills of its own staff, to assist member countries in those four ambitious and long-term goals outlined in the plan, obviously cannot be achieved if we do not have a pro-active partner on the other side, meaning you as FAO Member countries, taking very pro-active measures nationally in terms of policy measures, legislated measures, putting in place mechanisms and arrangements that would empower rural women and explicitly promote and ensure gender equality in terms of access to productive resources and I think that certainly more of that attitude is needed all around the world.
I believe that one area that has also been mentioned by many that also needs further attention, is that obviously when we talk about indicators you need the data to estimate those indicators and unfortunately, currently we do not have a system in place even for FAO's Field Programme that would establish a base line to start from. We are working very closely with the Gender and Population Division and with the Statistics Division in supporting agriculture censuses and surveys in terms of integrating more explicitly gender and the desegregation of data collection by sex and by age so that we can get better information but obviously agricultural censuses only happen every 10/15 years so we cannot rely only on that, we have to do also other types of surveys of a more qualitative nature.
I would like to say that we have developed in the Gender and Population Division very specific material, we call it GDD training material and we have used it already quite extensively since 2000 providing direct assistance to member countries upon request and within the availability of resources to train statisticians in their collection and analysis of data desegregated by sex and by age. And so this material is now available in FAO's languages, we have used it recently and we even have it in Russian for those member countries who use Russian even though it is not an official language. We also have it in Portuegese. So for those countries within their TCP or other types of projects that may be available we are more than happy to help you build skills in this area, we have the material available.
I think those were the major issues raised. Maybe one more point there are a number of you who recommended, or endorsed that gender training should become an integral part of the staff development and training programme of FAO. This is something that we certainly had hoped to see already, it is a question partly of resources, it is quite expensive to do across the house and at all levels including a decentralized level specific gender analysis training course. We have worked very closely with the staff development and training unit in integrating modules of the material we have available under the Socio-economic and Gender Analysis Programme, in the new project cycle course which a lot of staff at decentralized and at headquarter level will go through. It has recently been launched and this will now be a more regular feature and it does include a gender module.
CHAIRPERSON
It is now my turn to draw up a short summary. I think I have understood correctly that the Commission endorses the first FAO Gender and Development Action Plan, but improvements are still needed. With that short summary I have tried to conclude point six of the Agenda, point six is now concluded. Before coming to the next item I would like to inform you about several things. There is an announcement that the Secretariat informs that the next General Committee Meeting will not be held tomorrow morning but on Wednesday morning at 8.30 in the Mexico Room. The General Committee will be at 8.30 in the Mexico Room.
There are also two announcements; there is the Resolution on Illegal Fishery this is the document LIM 11 this one will be available in all languages between 17.30 and 18.00 at the Documents Desk. I would also like to announce that I have some nominations for the Friends of the Chair Committee, they come from Japan, from Australia and the United States. I need the other regions, please be so kind as to let me know. I see that Norway are interested in the Friends of the Chair Group and the ECS. So I need the other regions. Please let us know.
I think we have got all the regions and at the end I will read out the Friends of the Chair Committee. I have another announcement that the first meeting of the Drafting Committee is planned now for Tuesday evening, details will be given tomorrow morning. So now I think I have concluded the first item. I would like to go on to the next one. It is item number seven. It is the progress report on the implementation of the Plan of Action for the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign and it is the document C2003/7.
Ms Louise FRESCO (Assistant Director-General, Agriculture Department)
It is a great pleasure for me to be able to report on this item, which as you know has been dear to the Conference for many years. As you know Tsetse transmitted Trypanosomiasis is a disease unique to Africa and it affects both humans and animals. It occurs currently in 37 sub-Saharan countries which cover about 9 million square kilometres, which is about one third of Africa's total land area. The human form of this disease, sleeping sickness, potentially threatens 60 million people, while we believe that half a million people are currently infected. In addition 50 million cattle are exposed to the disease risk and the presence of the Tsetse flies, and the disease is a real threat to socio-economic and agricultural development and further exacerbates poverty and food insecurity.
The overall impact of the disease we estimate amounts to US$ 4.5 billion a year on agriculture alone. Given the scale of this problem FAO's Member Nations have endorsed a programme against African Trypanosomiasis or PAAT at the 29th Conference in 1997 to achieve focus and direction in addressing the problem. This PAAT Programme forms an international alliance, we combine our forces with the African Union, with the International Atomic Energy Agency, WHO and, of course, all relative national and international stakeholders. The Programme concentrates on defining and discussing strategies and guidelines for intervention. The important philosophy of the Programme for us is to place it in the context of wider rural and agricultural development and sustainability.
At the same time, as you know, the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign or PATTEC was established in July 2001 in Lomé at the 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the Organization of the African Unity, now the African Union. That action plan focuses on area wide approaches to Tsetse removal defined as the elimination of entire Tsetse populations within specific areas. The 31st FAO Conference in November 2001 welcomed in its Resolution 4/2001, the AU initiative for the progressive control and the ultimate eradication of Tsetse flies in Africa. And so the FAO Secretariat in line with this Resolution has been working to enhance the synergy and harmonization between the PAAT and the PATTEC programmes. The two programmes share the long-term objective of the removal of this disease and the constraint from sub-Saharan Africa. The main contribution that FAO now gives to PATTEC goes through the PAAT programme, it concerns technical, scientific support in setting guidelines and principles in disease control and aligning it with an overall view on sustainable agricultural development and poverty alleviation.
We have made, I am pleased to stay, substantial progress in consultation and consensus with our colleagues at the African Union. It is very important that the causal relationships between disease occurrence, poverty and rural development be clearly defined and within this approach we look at opportunities for development and for intervention and where possible we have intervened successfully in the PAAT/PATTEC Agreement, in particular in the southern rift valley of Ethiopia and the so-called cotton belt of Burkina Faso and Mali. So these are two areas for joint national and international action.
We report to you today that we will continue to work with PATTEC through PAAT in this wider philosophy of sustainable rural and agricultural development.
CHAIRPERSON
Before opening the floor for the discussion I would like to make two announcements. The first announcement is that we will go on with our work until 17.45 p.m., we have interpretation until 17.45 p.m. and hopefully we can conclude this item of the day. The second announcement is that it is recalled to participants that Round Table number one will start in the King Faisal Room at 17.30 sharp. Delegations of FAO Members which have not registered in the Round Table number one have the possibility to follow the debate in the Austria Room. So those were my announcements and now I look forward to hearing the interventions of the delegations.
I see Italy and then, no one else. I see Angola, the United States, Uganda, African Union, Swaziland. So I will start with Italy.
Eugenio CAMPO (Italy)
I am speaking on behalf of the European Community and its 15 Member States. The ten acceding countries to the European Union associate themselves with this statement.
I would like to refer to the progress report on the implementation of the Plan of Action for the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign. In our opinion the control and eventual eradication of the African Trypanosomiasis is linked to the strengthening of health systems and integrating more effectively specific actions, such as vector control, case detection, treatment and follow-up.
The European Union has programmed significant funding to support health strategies in areas marked by a considerable disease burden. Given the lack of investment to develop preventive and treatment tools the formulation of incentives to encourage research in this important area would be particularly welcome.
Pedro Agostinho KANGA (Angola)
Je voudrais en premier lieu m'associer aux délégations qui m'ont précédé pour vous féliciter de votre élection à la présidence de cette importante Commission.
La lutte contre la mouche tsé-tsé et la trypanosomose doit être placée parmi les priorités dans les pays où sévit la maladie. Sans doute, elle constitue une menace sérieuse non seulement pour la sécurité alimentaire mais aussi pour la santé publique. Son éradication contribuerait à l'accroissement de la productivité des cultures et de l'élevage car les régions affectées sont, par excellence, agricoles avec des terres très fertiles et de bons pâturages. À cet égard, nous nous félicitons de la mise en œuvre des programmes de la lutte contre la trypanosomose africaine et le plan d'action pour la Campagne panafricaine d'éradication de la mouche tsé-tsé et de la trypanosomose. Nous remercions toutes les institutions régionales et internationales qui ne cessent de déployer les efforts pour combattre ce fléau, en particulier la FAO.
S'agissant de techniques utilisées pour la lutte contre la mouche tsé-tsé et la trypanosomose, la technique de la mouche stérile a déjà démontré son efficacité dans la vallée du Rift en Éthiopie, au Zanzibar, dont les résultats ont été spectaculaires.
Nous saluons l'accord conclu entre le PLTA (Programme de lutte contre la trypanosomose africaine) et le PATTEC (Campagne panafricaine d'éradication de la mouche tsé-tsé et de la trypanosomose) pour la mise en œuvre d'interventions de lutte contre la mouche tsé-tsé et la trypanosomose, mais ces interventions doivent être élargies à d'autres régions qui sont actuellement très affectées, comme c'est le cas pour mon pays, l'Angola, et ceci dans le plus bref délai.
Le paragraphe 13 constitue pour ma délégation une préoccupation et mérite une réflexion soutenue de la part du gouvernement et de l'organisation spécialisée du système des Nations Unies qu'est la FAO. L'élaboration par notre organisation d'un plan dans le cadre du programme de coopération technique, visant à créer les capacités nationales et régionales nécessaires à la mise en place du système de lutte intégrée contre la mouche tsé-tsé et la trypanosomose à l'échelon régional, est la bienvenue et nous nous en félicitons.
Toutefois, ma délégation insiste sur le fait que ce projet est indispensable dans d'autres régions comme la mienne car l'Angola se situe entre l'Afrique australe et l'Afrique centrale. C'est pourquoi ma délégation souhaite que ces deux régions soient considérées comme des priorités. En effet, nous avons constaté que dans ce document on donne priorité à une certaine région au détriment d'autres alors que celui-ci reconnaît dans son paragraphe 2 qu'il y a 37 pays au sud du Sahara.
Pour terminer, ma délégation approuve le paragraphe 26.
Willem H. BRAKEL (United States of America)
Because livestock plays an important role in reduction of rural poverty, the United States agrees that there is a need to establish focus and direction in the fight against Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis, both of which are key constraints to African development.
The United States supports the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign PATTEC and the commitment of African governments to Trypanosomiasis control programmes. We are pleased that progress has been made in achieving consensus on principles for the selection of priority areas for PATTEC programme intervention, on a common control approach and on focal areas for PATTEC's field operations in Burkina Faso, Mali and Ethiopia. Because there is a growing consensus on the PATTEC objectives, as well as the need for intensified joint efforts on Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis intervention, we welcome the recommendation of the First Conference of Ministers of Agriculture of the African Union that African governments allocate adequate resources and cooperate among themselves and with the African Union in the implementation of PATTEC. Such collaboration and commitment are critical to build the necessary regional and national capacities for integrated area-wide Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis intervention schemes supported by Resolution 4/2001.
We encourage member nations to include Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis in their poverty reduction strategy papers. We hope that future reports will be able to include information on progress made in eradicating Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis.
J. P. SAAMANYA (Uganda)
Uganda is one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa which is infested with Tsetse flies and consequently human and animal Trypanosomiasis. We therefore note with satisfaction the efforts of FAO, as regards the Plan of Action for PATTEC, especially in the coordination of programmes with those of PAAT to enhance the availability of technical and scientific information and advice to the African countries.
In this regard Uganda is in the final stages of developing a comprehensive policy on the control of Tsetse flies and Trypanosomiasis and Uganda is also finalizing a country Plan of Action to operationalize PATTEC.
We therefore call for increased budgetary support by FAO to countries affected and, as other members have also said, it is important that member countries increase budgetary allocations to fight this disease which is affecting both human health as well as incomes from the livestock sub-sector.
Robert J. THWALA (Swaziland)
Swaziland wishes to congratulate you first for your election to run this very important meeting. Swaziland welcomes the joint effort by the PAAT and PATTEC in the fight against Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis. It has been a known fact for a long period of time that the Tsetse fly and Trypanosomiasis have been a very serious constraint in the affected regions of Africa, one third of the continent in terms of food production and agricultural productivity. The recognition of these and the funding thereof is most welcome. However, Swaziland wishes to urge for a more concrete, on the ground, pathway for the progressive control and eradication of the Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis scourge, as critical to poverty alleviation in these affected areas, as to food security. There could be so much that could be spent on scientific studies, on the extent of technology which has been, for the past more than three decades been done. We believe that maybe it is time to harmonize what has been done, put it on the ground so that we can see areas that already would be used for increased agricultural productivity.
We appreciate the efforts that have been done but we wish in the next conference maybe to hear a report of progress on the ground.
John KABAYO (Observer from the African Union)
The African Union is highly appreciative of the activities of FAO in support of the efforts of African countries to implement the objectives of the PATTEC initiative. When in July 2000, the African Heads of State and Government declared the war on the Tsetse Fly, Trypanosomiasis was one of the neglected diseases, and during these past two years, I am happy to report, that, many affected countries and government partners have challenged fighting this entirely needless disease. I say entirely needless because the means to remove it are bad and the consequence from the continent are variable and what had been missing was the political will and level of organization that would combine and generate the commitment and action necessary to mount effective action. When the African leaders passed their historical decision urging Member States to embark on the PATTEC initiative they entrusted the task of mobilizing and coordinating action to the Commission of the African Union. Along with that assignment the African leaders mandated the Commission to remind Member States about the individual and collective obligations to implement the objectives of the initiative. In this connection, the Commission established an office coordinated for PATTEC which has been active in the past year to help organize and inspire activities of the campaign. And, as you know, Trypanosomiasis is a transboundary problem and the Commission of the African Union has been providing the auspices and mechanisms through which the modalities of regional and inter-state cooperation in Tsetse control activities can be achieved.
The Commission is pleased to note that several countries including Ethiopia, Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Zambia and Zimbabwe have embarked on Tsetse eradication activities and other countries including Rwanda, Sudan, Angola and many others are also developing plans to initiate similar projects.
As promised the Tsetse Project from FAO to PATTEC is higher outcome and will give the PATTEC Coordination Office a big boost in its task of coordinating and mobilizing activities for the campaign. We believe the war against the Tsetse Fly is winnable and we have no choice other than winning it because the Tsetse Fly and the disease it spreads to man and livestock still forms a significant and severe constraint to Africa's plans and possibilities to increase agriculture and livestock productivity.
The African Union therefore recognizes and highly values the partnership of FAO, welcomes the efforts currently being undertaken by FAO and looks forward to more cooperation in the war against the Tsetse Fly.
CHAIRPERSON
Since there are no more requests for the floor I would like to give the floor now to Mr Jim Dargie the Director of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division in Vienna.
Jim D. DARGIE (Director, Joint FAO/IAEA Division)
I would like first of all to thank the delegates for their very constructive comments from which I took it that you are relatively happy with progress being made. There are one or two points that I would like to focus on. First of all, and we have this from the previous discussion, but it would be very important to move forward decisively, on this problem is that the Member States themselves do recognize its importance by including it in their poverty reductions strategy papers. Even agriculture sometimes is not mentioned in the country concerned in these papers and until that happens of course, it will be very difficult to mobilize the financial and other support necessary to combat this infection. So getting that political level of support and donor support will be extremely important.
On the issue raised by Angola on where we believe we need to intervene, let me just say that these are the first two bankable areas that have been identified and that we would be very happy to work with other countries in developing project proposals among similar lines and using the criteria and guidelines for prioritizing action. Obviously, there would be areas even within particular countries which are more affected by the Tsetse and Tryponosomiasis problem than others. Some areas may be more affected by the human disease and the approach to odds tackling the human disease may be different from the approach tackling the livestock disease. So we need to get together and work with you on these criteria and guidelines for prioritizing actions. In other words, get focused to what goes on within the continent and indeed within individual countries.
One final point was the reporting and progress. I think the United States and Swaziland also said that they would like to hear progress on the ground down the line and certainly we would be happy to do that. I agree that the technologies by-and-large are there. It is a question of defining the priority areas for intervention and then the mix of technologies and the sequential use of the technologies for achieving the ends that we all seek. So we would certainly be happy to prepare a progress report of what has happened on the ground for the next Conference.
CHAIRPERSON
Now it brings me to drawing up my conclusions. I have heard the following: the Commission welcomed the report and the implementation of the Plan of Action, progress has been made but much more has to be done in the direction of alleviating poverty. There is still the need of continued and renewed commitment of Members to these programs. That brings me to the conclusion of this agenda item, the item 7. The item is concluded. Before adjourning the meeting I have two announcements.
The first announcement is that the Chair of the Drafting Committee which I have announced at the beginning of the meeting will be Cameroon. The next announcement which I wanted to make concerns the Friends of the Chair meeting. I have written down the following countries. I have written down New Zealand as Chair, the US, Australia, Norway, Japan, the EC, Canada, Angola and Kenya. Also this list does not make an equilibrium of the whole regions here in FAO, so I would like to ask people to give the nominations of the countries of the missing regions to my office so that I can start with the meeting of the Friends of Chair tomorrow morning. I would like to first get the nominees of the regions non-represented here in my list, I will read it once again: Chair New Zealand, US, Australia, Norway, Japan, EC, Canada, Angola and Kenya. And after this I would conclude my list tomorrow morning and then after starting with my meeting tomorrow morning I would like to ask the Friends of the Chair to meet tomorrow after the announcement in this meeting in the Canada Room.
So please be so nice and give to me the names of the regions not represented now or to the Secretariat so that we could conclude with our list and start tomorrow morning with the work on the Resolution. I would like also to remind people that we should start tomorrow morning 09.30 hours sharp so we can go on and proceed with our work.
I announce again the room will be Canada Room A357 for the Friends of the Chair meeting which will take place after starting Commission 1 when I have announced all the members of the Friends of Chair group to the Resolution concerning Illegal Fisheries.
Now, I will adjourn the meeting and will also remind you that now there is Round Table 1 taking place and you can listen in the Austrian room to this event. Thank you very much we will meet tomorrow morning sharp at 09.30 hours.
The meeting rose at 17.40 hours
La séance est levée à 17 h 40
Se levanta la sesión a las 17.40 horas
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