Publicado el 16 abril de 1998

Grupos Temáticos

Pakistan: Thematic Group on Food Security

Membership

The Group currently includes the participation of: FAO, UNDP, WFP, WHO, ILO and UNICEF, though there are plans to expand the membership to include representatives of bilateral donors and civil society in the future.

Main themes and sub-themes

The first Group meeting agreed on the following themes:

• Strengthening local institutions and producers' organizations for ensuring food security
• Improving household food security through integrated production, education and nutritional interventions at the local level;
• Improving access to the food through income and employment generation and other poverty alleviation strategies;
• Trends in aggregate food security, price and distribution and implications for food security at local level;
• Early warning measures and emergency relief.

Priority areas for co-operation

In its second meeting (26 March 1998), the Thematic Group selected six priority areas for interagency co-operation and agreed to establish Task Forces, in which relevant UN Agencies would assume a leading co-ordination role, for each of these areas. The Group agreed to create Task Forces for the following areas:

• Policy and strategy for sustainable household food security in Pakistan (co-ordinating Agencies: FAO and UNDP);
• Improving information and statistical data on food insecure and vulnerable groups (co-ordinating Agencies: FAO and WFP);
• Assessment and advice on nutritional status including follow-up to the International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) (co-ordinating Agencies: WHO and FAO);
• Strengthening the food control system in Pakistan (co-ordinating Agency: FAO);
• Improving preparedness and response to emergencies, early warning and emergency mechanism (co-ordinating Agencies: WFP and FAO);
• Ensuring sustainability of resources and technologies including "Food for All" (co-ordinating Agency: FAO).

The proposed objectives are currently being reviewed by the members prior to finalisation. On the basis of the final objectives, a work-plan will be discussed and drafted each month for an individual Task Force. In this way, the Thematic Group will be able to finalise the objectives, modalities and work-plan for all the selected priority areas after a six month period. The Task Force on "Policy and strategy for sustainable household food security in Pakistan" will meet in April, followed by the Task Force on "Improving information and statistical data on food insecure and vulnerable groups". Other Task Forces will meet in the subsequent monthly meetings.

Collaboration with other Groups

The Thematic Group agreed to collaborate with the pre-existing Poverty Alleviation Thematic Group which is co-ordinated by ILO and WHO, for instance on issues related to rural dimensions of poverty alleviation and rural employment.