February 2002

2002, International year of the mountains: an important event for the Network

February 15th 2002 will be a marked day at FAO headquarters in Rome: a ceremony will officially open the International Year of the Mountains. Launched last December 11th at the General Assembly of United Nations in New York, this year for the mountains has as its main aim to show worldwide why ecosystems in the mountains are so important and which are the main challenges people in the mountains have to face everyday. They will also formulate a long-term action in this field.

The inauguration has been set by the headquarters of the United Nations in New York for the International year of the Mountains. FAO has been designated the chief agency to organize events to take place over the year. Among the organizations associated with this effort are various agencies of the UN, non-governmental agencies, the Mountain Forum, organizations of mountain peoples and more than 40 national committees that represent the participating countries throughout the world.

These national committees can be considered an open field for the thematic groups of Rural Development and Food Security. The plurality of their members constitutes a valuable aspect in the International Year of the Mountains, not only in the organization of events, but also in urging governments to formulate laws and policies guaranteeing the sustainable development of mountain zones.

Armed conflicts (in 1999, 23 of the 27 main conflicts were fought in mountainous areas) and hunger are the problems suffered by mountain populations. Also, a number of characteristics (abrupt terrain, inadequate transport and communication systems, political marginalization and limited access to education and capital) stand as lasting obstacles to development. Furthermore, these populations are essential as the guardians of biological diversity, and their mountains provide freshwater for three billion people to drink, for irrigating the fields and for generating energy.

From 16 June to 20 June 2002, an International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountain Regions will be held in Adelboden, Switzerland organized by the Swiss Government and FAO. The main objective of this meeting will be to set up a plan of actions to implement Chapter 13 and 14 of Agenda 21. More information regarding this meeting will be available in our next update.

For more information: http://www.mountains2002.org/

High-level International and Inter-governmental Meeting on the Financing of Development. Monterrey, Mexico, 18-22 March 2002

"Unless we manage to mobilize a greater number of resources-both public as well as private-our plans to eradicate poverty and accelerate development will be frustrated."
Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, May 2001

In March 2002, the city of Monterrey, Mexico, will welcome an important event for the actors of international development. This is the first time that the United Nations has organized a high-level meeting to face key issues on the financing of development.

Among those present will be the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as representatives of the civil society and the business world. Countries will be represented by their Ministers of Economy and foreign-affairs ministers.

At the moment, six key areas have been set on the agenda of the conference. Each will be debated, and the decisions made will become part of the plan of action:

Mobilization of national economic resources.
Mobilization of foreign investment and private sources.
International commerce.
Official aid for development.
Debt Cancellation.
International monetary, financial and commercial monetary systems.

Organizations that still have no consultantive status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and wish to participate in the conference can contact ffd@un.org. Further information is available at www.un.org/ffd.

African Youth Summit. Lagos, Nigeria, 2-5 April 2002

During the World Conference against Racism held last September in Durban (Republic of South Africa), more than 800 young people met in a forum to debate the extent to which youth are affected by racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance. This was the first International Youth Summit, which produced, among other things, a plan of action that emphasized the need for the young to be included in the decision-making process and in the measures taken against racism and human-rights violations.

Next April, African youth have an important date as a follow-up to the Durban event. This will be a regional summit that has the following aims:

To identify the problems that affect African youth, especially in matters related to unemployment among the young, education, health, the environment, human rights, child labour, drugs and armed conflicts.
To outline a regional plan of action to combat the problems identified.
To formulate a plan of action at the national and regional levels.

The summit, under the motto "Reshape the future of African youth for sustainable development" also intends to press for better national policies for African youth as passive observers of the development of the continent.
The meeting will be housed by the Genius International Organization (GIO), an NGO dedicated to improving the expectations of the young. All the NGOs and youth networks are invited to contribute their ideas in the preparation of the meeting. For this, simply contact the organization.

International Scientific Simposium on Measurement and Assessment of Food Deprivation and Undernutrition

Called by FAO, scientist from all over the world will meet in Rome next June 26th-28th to debate on the most proper indicators for inter-country comparison on food deprivation following an international criterium. Abstracts for presentations will have to be send before February 28th to ISSS2002@fao.org.

This meeting will point the international dimension of the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS). Will be discussed, among others, methods such as anthropometry and qualitative indicators of hunger. More information in www.fivims.net.

Towards the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) - Johannesburg (26 August - 4 September)

The second round of preparations for the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) have begun on 28 January 2002. Participants to the Second Summit Preparatory Committee - Prepcom II, have gathered in New York to continue the preparatory work that will lead to the meeting in Johannesburg this coming September.

As part of the preparatory process for the WSSD, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and major groups in civil society working on land and agriculture have organized an informal side event at the UN Headquarters .

The event took place as a multi-stakeholder dialogue on 31 January, co-chaired by Mr. Jacques Eckebil, Assistant Director-General of the Sustainable Development Department, FAO and a representative of a major civil society group. Participants included FAO experts and representatives from governments, indigenous peoples’organizations, farmer organizations, the private sector, trade unions,and other major civil society organizations and intergovernmental organizations.

The purpose of the multi-stakeholder dialogue was to assess progresses made and lessons learned, and identify new challenges, main constraints, and potential interventions in the area of integrated land, food, and agricultural policy within the framework of poverty eradication, resource management andsustainable consumption. . Participants offered their perspectives on the emerging themes of access to resources, global campaign on fair anddecent conditions of employment in agriculture, good practice for sustainable agriculture and rural development, and others areas of possible commitments. For further information, please contact: Eve.Crowley@fao.org.