Posted June 2001

Country Thematic Groups

The Thematic Group in Peru has a long tradition of dynamic collaboration amongst development partners in the country. It was created in 1993 (before the World Food Summit (1996), in response to the need for international and bilateral organizations in the country to coordinate activities to meet the demands of the Government. After the World Food Summit and as follow-up action, FAO invited the Government to participate and to give a sense of formality to the Thematic Group.

In 1998, the Group strengthened its membership and began focusing efforts on rural development and food security. Since then, its 32 members have convened various meetings whose purpose is primarily for information exchange and dissemination on such cross-cutting themes as: the potential of traditional Andean crops; the development of the border between Ecuador and Peru; the improvement in capacities to forecast and evaluate El Niño through natural disaster prevention strategies; and poverty alleviation through private sector and entrepreneurial partnerships. In 2001, the priority themes for Group focus are the International Year of the Mountains (IYM-2002) and preparations for World Food Summit: Five Years Later (WFS: fyl).

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