Rules and Regulations. Malta
meeting, 17-18 September 2000 Minutes of
the Executive Committee Meeting
1- The agenda of the meeting was adopted with minor modifications as follows:
Rules and Regulations.
The urgent need for the establishment of the rules and procedures for the Association and the amendments of specific issues regarding its constitution were highlighted by Dr. Denis Fadda, FAO legal officer. He went through every single rule that was distributed to all participants and discussed their comments. A final corrected draft would be distributed to all members for final comments, as soon as it is received from the legal officer.
Amendments of AARINENA
Constitution.
All the participants discussed the amendments to the AARINENA constitution, which will be approved by the General Conference. Several suggestions have been proposed, the most important suggestions were:
A- The General Conference shall decide on the place of the association seat.
B- The following countries should be omitted Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan and Kazakhstan.
C- Full time Executive Secretary of the Association shall be appointed by the General Conference on the recommendation of the Executive Committee.
All the proposed amendments have been discussed and recommended, but they need to be approved by the General Conference.
·Progress Report
The progress report has been presented by the Executive Secretary
emphasizing on the following issues:
1-Strengthening the AARINENA Secretariat: The Committee discussed the issue that AARINENA should have a full time, appropriately experienced and properly paid Executive Secretary. The Secretary should be chosen after an international call to serve the Association for four years, so it could provide the continuity of work, and strengthen the leadership of the Association.
2-Calling for an APO by the FAO/RNE: The request has been processed by ADG/RR, RNE and sent to FAO/TCDM and Dr. Chaparro was asked to follow it up.
3-Establishment of International fund for the support of Genebanks: AARINENA members showed great interest in this issue. It was highly recommended to help all AARINENA countries to establish their own genebanks and to contribute to the proposed world genebank information.
4-The Integrated Feed Project: In order to seek collaboration and partnership, many international organizations and stakeholders showed interest to participate in the Integrated Feed Project prepared by AARINENA/ICARDA but they did not propose funding.
5-RAIS/WANA Workshop: organized by AARINENA/FAO, considered of high importance for the establishment of focal points in each country to assure communication and transfer of agricultural information.
· The Global Forum on Agricultural Research:
Dr. Fernando Chaparro, the Executive secretary of Global forum on Agricultural Research, presented slides showing all the activities in the context of globalization. He stated that the association should improve contacts among NARS of member countries. In order to strengthen these contacts, the Secretariat of the association should be a full time job with a stable budget”.
He urged NARS of member countries to work together to contribute to the projects and complement each other work before seeking the financial support of Regional or International Organizations.
He stressed on the importance of the Agricultural Information System, since it is essential for the transfer of data and information and the operationalization of AARINENA and Partnership with EIARD.
· Conclusions and Recommendations:
- The proposals of Prof. A. Scicluna-Spiteri that AARINENA should acknowledge its appreciation of the exceptional help by some individuals by awarding to that person a wall plaque of the Association was approved and that the President should in future preside at biannual General conferences; was agreed to and to be included in the rules and procedures.
- The Secretariat should be a full time job with a stable location and budget to fulfill all necessary activities, especially strengthening the contacts among NARS countries.
- It was also recommended to ask NARS to contribute for the workshops organized by AARINENA.
The Date Palm Network Project:
A network proposal of Date Palm was prepared by AARINENA and FAO and presented during its 7th General Conference held in Beirut-Lebanon, March 2000. Several contacts with various International Organizations have been done seeking their interest and funding.
- ACSAD responded positively to complement the Date Palm Project and to prevent mis-leaded efforts by sending all the reports they have regarding this issue. But they did not answer our request on the addresses of the contact points in Arab countries.
- Contacts with all representatives of AARINENA (Focal Points in Research Institutes in the region) were made to provide all names of experts on this field.
- Experts from Syria, Iran, Iraq and Palestine are willing to participate regarding in the Date Palm Network.
- Iran showed an interest in hosting the secretariat, and Dr. Abbas Keshavarz has been informed that his desire would be taken into consideration after the implementation of the project, as one of its main objectives would be the establishment of a secretariat. This would be possible after ensuring partnership with European researchers and seeking fund through European Forum.
- It was recommended to contact CIRAD (Centre International pour la Recherche Agricole et le Development) as they have shown interest in this project and Mr. Michel de Nuce (President of Agropolis) to provide addresses of funding agencies.
EFARD/AARINENA plan of action
Within
the framework of cooperation between WANA and European initiatives, AARINENA
country members are invited to seek partnership with EFARD threw project
proposals listed in their plan of action 2001-2002.
This list is a provisional and an open one.
1-Genetic Resources Management and Biotechnology:
1.1
In Situ Conservation and Management of Plant Genetic Resources
1.2
Ex Situ Conservation
1.3
Rice Genomics
1.4
Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources
1.5
Conservation and Utilization of Animal Genetic Resources
1.6
Global initiative on vector-borne livestock disease
2-Natural
Resources Management and Agro-Ecology
.
2.1
Global program on Water resources.
2.2
Global Program on Direct Sowing, Mulch-Based Systems and Conservation
Tillage (DMC).
2.3
Global Program on Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
2.4
Global programmes on Intensification of Agro-ecosystems: Rainfed, Semi
Arid, Peri-Urban.
2.5
Integrated Feed/Livestock Production Systems using Non-Conventional Feed
Resources
2.6 Global Programme to Promote Local Innovation in (National Research Management) NRM and (Agricultural Economy) AE
3-Commodity
Chains
Global programs on commodity
chains: Coconut, Banana, Cotton, Citrus, Cocoa, Coffee, Date palm, Olive and
Nuts.
Consultative
meeting
FAO-Rome,
27 February 2001.
A Consultative Meeting was carried out to develop a regional strategy to promote North–South collaboration in Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) in the Mediterranean Basin in FAO, Rome, Italy, 27 February 2001.
Over the last 18 months, the European Forum for ARD / EFARD on one side, and the Association for Agricultural Research Institutions for the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA) for the West Asia & North Africa (WANA) Region on the other side, hold discussions to develop and implement a joint research agenda.
At the same time, other major institutions, active in ARD in the region, felt the need to strengthen regional cooperation and, consequently, have initiated bi- or multi-lateral discussions to identify new cost-effective collaborative mechanisms.
In view of these different elements, and complying with its facilitating role, the GFAR Secretariat invited representatives of the following institutions that have been actively involved in the former discussions: AARINENA, Agropolis (France), AOAD, ARC (Egypt), CIHEAM, EFARD, FAO, ICARDA, INRA (France) and NAGREF (Greece) as well as representatives from Italy, Portugal and Spain to attend the consultative meeting which has been held on Tuesday 27 February 2001 in FAO, Rome, Italy.
The results
of this meeting will be immediately shared with all other institutions involved
in ARD in the region seeking for their interest to join the new initiative.
Recommendations and framework action have also been proposed.