Posted June 2001

Country Thematic Groups

The UN Community in Pakistan is extensive, and the Group has succeeded in promoting strong inter-agency cooperation and collaboration. In the past the Group has explored the means of achieving a more concerted UN-system preparedness and response to emergency situations in the country: a background paper prepared within the framework of the Group (and presented to all relevant UN agency heads in the country) identified the task force set up in the wake of Cyclone 2A in May 1999 as an excellent example of the United Nations' ability to coordinate a joint response to a national emergency.

On World Food Day (16 October 2000), the Thematic Group published 'The United Nations Statement on Food Security', a report that includes information on government initiatives for ensuring food security and describes policy and strategic options and the role of the United Nations and multilateral financial institutions. As the Group Coordinator asserted, "all agencies of the UN System in Pakistan adhere to this document and view as their common platform concerning food security." It is hoped that this statement will form part of a series of UN sectoral statements in the country (one on gender has already been produced). The report was published as a booklet and can also be read on line on the UN Pakistan Country Website.

Although the Thematic Group is comprised solely of representatives of UN agencies, it networks widely with national stakeholders such as the National Institute of Health, National Agriculture Research Centre, the Nutrition Cell of the Planning Department; and the Meteorology Department, as well as with other national Thematic Groups in the country (e.g. the Poverty Alleviation, United Nations Development Group; the Interagency Gender and Development Group (INGAD); the Pakistan Network for Information Sharing (PANIS); and the Technical Committee on data sharing and GIS).

For further information, contact: FAO-PAK@field.fao.org