29 November - 10 December 2003: 32nd Session of the FAO Conference

Every two years, the 184 members of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) meet in a regular session in its Rome headquarters. This session known as the FAO Conference, is the supreme governing body of the Organization. Its main functions are to determine the policies of the Organization, approve the budget, and make recommendations to Members and international organizations on any matter related to the mandate of FAO.

Among the main policy matters to be discussed during this year's 32nd session are the FAO Initiatives to fight hunger: Follow-up to the World Food Summit and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the International Year of Rice 2004. Other topics that were also discussed during the Conference include the progress reports of the implementation of: the FAO Gender and Development Plan of Action (2002-2007), the Plan of Action for the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (Res. 4/2001) and the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing

Several side events organized during the week of the FAO conference to discuss topics that range from HIV/AIDS to food security passing through Plant Genetic Resources and South-South Cooperation. Representatives of NGOs/CSOs will be involved in the presentations of some of these events. Each event is organized either by FAO departments, member states and/or other programmes. The side events planned are in the followinmg areas:

• World Aids Day
• Agroecology: Developing a common civil society/FAO approach
• Small Island Developing States
• International Trade and Food Security
• The International Treaty on Plant Genetic resources for Food Agriculture
• GeoNetwork - FAO spatial data and information access and analysis
• Linking Relief to Rehabilitation and Development
• South-South Cooperation: Opportunities, achievements and constraints
• FAO Technical Cooperation Programme
(TCP)
• Reducing societal costs by eliminating the root causes of hunger
• Community development to fight hunger

Aside from the participation of NGOs/CSOs in the presentation and in some cases organization of several side events, they also will organize various meetings in connection with the FAO conference:

- Agro ecology seminar on 24-25 November: organized by the FAO-International Planning Committee (IPC) agro ecology working group.

- (IPC) coordination meeting on 26-28 November: the annual internal meeting with members from all of the regions and constituency groups.

- Meeting of INGO's attending the FAO Conference on 29 November: As part of the official programme, this meeting is traditionally held on the first day of the Conference. During the meeting, two main themes will be discussed: Strengthening coherence in FAO Initiatives to fight hunger and Developments in the WTO Negotiations on Agriculture and Implications for Food Security - Including the work of FAO. A final report on the discussion of the first theme was drafted and distributed as an information document to delegates. The results of the discussion of the second item were reported to the Conference plenary.

- Meeting of the "More and Better" international advocacy campaign on 30 November- 1 December: Following it's launching during World Food Day 2003, the International Campaign Secretariat based in Rome, met to organize next steps with other organizations that have shown interest.