Focus on five demonstration countries for the first round of OCOP implementation

Rome - The OCOP Secretariat organized the Second National Coordination Meeting for the implementation of the FAO One Country One Priority (OCOP) Initiative among the first-round five demonstration countries, namely Bangladesh, Egypt, Malawi, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uzbekistan.

The meeting was attended by 29 participants, including the focal points from Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol’s office and the core members of OCOP Secretariat as well as the OCOP focal points from the FAO country offices, the host government representatives, and the lead technical experts from the five OCOP demonstration countries. The meeting was moderated by Haekoo Kim, Technical Adviser at NSP and Technical Support Lead at the OCOP Secretariat.

Jingyuan Xia, NSP Director and OCOP Executive Secretary, opened the meeting and emphasized that OCOP is moving from vision to action, which makes this a milestone meeting. Xia officially announced the organizational structure, the staff composition and the operational mechanism of the OCOP Secretariat. He requested all focal points and lead technical experts in each demonstration country to apply effective communication and inclusive collaboration with the regional focal points and the OCOP Secretariat at FAO headquarters for the successful implementation of the OCOP.

Next, Technical Adviser at NSP and the Global Coordinator of the OCOP Secretariat, Hafiz Muminjanov, introduced the top three tasks for this meeting: i) the establishment of the Technical Working Group (TWG) to support the implementation of the OCOP Projects in each demonstration country; ii) the development of the Concept Note and the Working Plan to implement the OCOP Projects in each demonstration country; and iii) the preparation for the launch events on the implementation of the OCOP projects in each demonstration country.

In addition, NSP Sustainable Agriculture Specialist and OCOP Secretariat Core Member for Technical Support, Shangchuan Jiang, briefed the attendees on the upcoming online training sessions on the sustainable development of field, fruit and horticulture crops in the topics that will be co-organized by FAO-NSP and the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agriculture Sciences (CATAS) on 28-30 November 2022. She encouraged all five demonstration countries to actively participate in this online training.

The general discussion focused on the establishment of effective communication and coordination mechanisms amongst the national focal points, the regional focal points, and the OCOP Secretariat at FAO headquarters as well as the development of work plans for the implementation of the OCOP projects in the five demonstration countries.

Xia concluded the meeting by reiterating the way forward in terms of moving the OCOP from vision to action through leading by example. He urged all the participants to establish a strengthened collaboration between the OCOP Secretariat and the TWGs to setup models that can lead the successful implementation of the OCOP in all country projects.