Sri Lanka: The preparations continue for the World Food Summit-Five Years Later

The Thematic Group on Food Security is actively participating in the preparations made by Sri Lanka for the upcoming World Food Summit to be held in Rome next June.

Ever since it was reactivated, at the beginning of 2001, the Sri Lanka Group made it a priority to compile information on the food-security projects implemented in the country by different actors, as a way of performing a detailed analysis of the advances achieved in the last five years regarding the commitments agreed upon in the 1996 summit. In this way, the delegation of Sri Lanka could attend the June meeting with a studied analysis of progress and needs for an effective participation in the sessions.

During this process of gathering information, the group organized a one-day workshop so that those involved in rural development could complete the information and debate the main obstacles encountered during the application of their projects and programmes. This workshop was attended by 40 representatives of NGOs and of different ministries. During the session, they also debated the different perceptions that the participants had of each of the commitments in the Action Plan of the World Food Summit.

With all this information, a consultant contracted by the FAO prepared a report entitled "Information on projects, programmes and activities for food security applied since 1997 in Sri Lanka. This document, together with others, such as "Strategy for National Agricultural Development-Horizon 2010" provided the basis upon which an inter-ministry committee has prepared an outline with the position that the country will face in the summit in June.

For fuller information, contact the office of the FAO in Sri Lanka: FAO-LKA@field.fao.org