Summary of the Outcome of AARINENA Executive Committee Meeting

INRA –Marrakech

December 22-23, 2004

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Abel Nabi Fardous President of AARINENA , and attended by the members of the Executive Committee : Dr. Ahmad Al-Bakry, Dr. Mohamed Roozitalab , Dr. Hamid Narjesse, Dr. Ismail Muharram and Dr. Ibrahim Hamdan. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Cosponsors: Dr. Magdi Madkour representing ICARDA, Dr. Abdalla Bari Representing IPGRI .

The first session of the meeting was attended by invited speakers: Dr. Geoff Hawtin Interim Executive Secretary of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, Dr. Mark Holderness from CABI and members of the Regional Olive Network.

Dr. Fardous welcomed the participants and thanked the Government of Morocco represented by INRA Director General Dr. Hamid Narjisse for hosting the meeting. He also thanked AARINENA Cosponsors, FAO, ICARDA, IFPRI and IPGRI for their continued support. Then he referred to the work plan that was adopted by AARINENA 9^th General Conference and summarized the agenda of the meeting which included presentations on AARINENA progress since the Oman Meeting by Dr. Hamdan, Global Crop Diversity Trust: Development of Conservation Strategies by Dr. Hawtin, Innovation Systems and Knowledge Flow by Dr. Holderness.

The Olive Working Groups presented regional proposals that included proposals on production and protection, post harvest and drought resistant varieties.

In the second day Dr. Roozitalab presented as the chairman of GFAR the Integration of GFAR Business Plan with AARINENA's Plan of Work. He highlighted the main Pillars of GFAR Business Plan for 2004 -2006 and described how AARINENA could contribute to the successful implementation of the pillar activities in the WANA region. He emphasised the effective operation of the Networks created by AARINENA (Date palm, Olive, Medicinal Plants and Interregional Cotton Network) is very important to the pillar of Interregional Collaboration. He highlighted the role of AARINENA in organizing the consultation meetings on the new GPP such Global Post harvest imitative and Non-timber Forest Product.

Then Dr. Roozitalab presented the Regional RAIS Proposal that was approved by ICT Steering Committee Meeting in Tehran. He presented the outcomes of the meeting and the recommendations made by the Steering Committee of AARINENA –RAIS. He urged the member countries to nominate the ICT Focal Points. He said the members of the Executive Committee of AARINENA representing the different sub regions could play a very important role in this regard. Then, The Committee approved the project proposed by the RAIS-Steering Committee to strengthen the regional RAIS in the region.

Then Dr. Narjesse presented a proposal for establishing a Water use efficiency Network. Followed by presentation by Dr. Hamdan of AARINENA Financial status since it was transferred from FAO/RNE to AARINENA account in Jordan and finally the three offers received to host AARINENA Permanent Seat.

The Committee discussed the above topics and recommended the following:

1-With regards to AARINENA Work Plan, the Committee recommended:

a- To initiate publication of successful research case studies in the region.

b- To participate, in association with FAO /GPA Global Crop Diversity Trust in formulating the proposed WANA Strategy by initiating two consultation meetings in Amman and Cairo.

c- The committee adopted the water network proposal and requested the secretariat to initiate contacts with ICARDA and other relevant organizations to hold expert consultation meeting for establishing this network. Dr. Narjisse will provide the name of the focal point for follow up.

d- To cosponsor the International Conference on Post Harvest and the International Conference on Bio safety that will be held in Oman in January and February 2005 and recommended to provide partial support to one or two participants from AARINENA member countries.

2- With regards to Olive working groups’ proposals, the committee recommended to revise these proposals by including review of literature, the state of art and emphasize the regional aspect of these proposals before submission to donors for funding.

3- With regard to the financial statement, the Committee recommended to establish a trust account through ICARDA and deposit some of the funds to this account.

4- The Committee reviewed the three offers received from Cyprus, Jordan and Saudi Arabia and recommended postponing the decision of selecting a permanent seat for AARINENA secretariat to the next committee meeting. It requested the secretariat to send another letter to the members inviting them for more offers to host the seat.

5- The next meeting of the committee will be held in Sana’a, Yemen in August 2005.