International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD)
New challenges and opportunities for revitalizing rural communities
3rd Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday 20 October 2005 10:30 – 12:30
FAO Room B-503

Chairman’s Record of the Meeting

Attendance:
Host Country representatives:
H.E. Flávio Miragaia Perri, Ambassador to FAO, Permanent Representative of Brazil to FAO
Mr. Aurimar Nuñes, Permanent Representation of Brazil to FAO
Mr. Saulo Ceolin, Permanent Representation of Brazil to FAO

Regional Representatives:
Africa:
LAC:
Mr. Sergio Insunza Becker, Deputy Permanent Representative of Chile to FAO
Ms. Liz Haydee Coronel Correa, Permanent Representative of Paraguay to FAO
Asia:
Mr. Noel D. De Luna, Chairman of the Steering Committee, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Philippines
European Union:
Mr. Victor C.D. Heard, Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to FAO
Mrs. Soline de Villard, Alternate Permanent Representative of the Delegation of the European Commission to FAO
Near East:
North America:
Ms. Harriet Spanos, Permanent Representation of the United States Mission to FAO.

FAO-ICARRD Executive Secretariat:
Parviz Koohafkan, Director, SDA, Executive Secretary of the ICARRD Secretariat; Thomas Price, Senior Programme Officer, Civil Society Cooperation, TCDS; Sieglinde Ring, Senior Coordination Officer, OCDC; Denis Fadda, Senior Officer, GICO; Paul Munro-Faure, Chief, SDAA; Eve Crowley, Senior Officer, SDAR; Olivier Dubois, Senior Officer, SDAR;German Rojas, Senior Officer, GIIM;  Paolo Groppo, Land Tenure System Analysis Officer, SDAA; Rosalud de la Rosa, SDAD/ICARRD Secretariat, Carolina Cenerini, SDAA and Catherine Gaury, SDAD/ICARRD Secretariat

IFAD Observer
Atiqur Rahman, Lead Strategist and Policy Coordinator, EAD

The Chair opened the meeting and welcomed the presence of Mr. Atiqur Rahman from IFAD.

Agenda  Items:

1. Introduction
1. The Agenda was adopted and the Minutes of the 2nd Steering Committee meeting approved.
2. The Election of Vice-Chairman was postponed. No proposals were put forward.

1. Progress on technical, administrative and financial matters

1. Issues Papers and eminent speakers

1. Mr Deininger (World Bank) and Mr Lyne (University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) were agreed for inclusion in the list of eminent speakers circulated by the Executive Secretariat. The list will serve as the basis for determining appropriate speakers, whether as eminent speakers or panellists, once the full programme is developed.
2. It was agreed that Mr Chonchol (Chile) would be approached as a possible co-author of Issue Paper 4 along with Mr Leite (Brazil).
3. The Executive Secretariat clarified preparation and responsibility for the preparation of the Issues Papers.  Referring to the FAO Council decision, he said that the technical responsibility for the preparation of the papers lies with FAO, under the overall policy guidance of the Steering Committee. High-Level lead consultants have been recruited to prepare the first drafts which will be reviewed by the FAO Secretariat and then submitted to Steering Committee for final review and approval.
4. The Executive Secretariat clarified that the authors of the Issues Papers are all individuals from well respected institutions with extensive work experience in developing countries, particularly in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, and with a history of long standing collaboration with FAO.
5. The Steering Committee considered and approved proposals from the North American region for amendments to the TORs of the Issues Papers.
6. The updated list of candidate countries for case studies was tabled by the Executive Secretariat. The Steering Committee agreed that the possibility of adding Nigeria, Kenya and Indonesia to the list of countries case studies should be explored by the Executive Secretariat.
7. The Steering Committee approved the proposal by IPC for an additional Issues Paper No. 5 (Food Sovereignty and Access to Resources) to be prepared by NGO/CSO.  
8. The Steering Committee agreed on the proposal to conduct a no-holds barred, no-record dialogue between an equal number of governments and civil society representatives and requested the Secretariat to study further the scenario for such a dialogue.

1. Outcomes and products of the Conference

1. The Executive Secretariat reviewed the planned outcomes of the Conference as the Lasting Platform for the continuation of the dialogue inspired by the ICARRD; the Observatory Panel and monitoring of progress based on appropriate selected existing indicators.
2. The Executive Secretariat was requested to prepare an analysis of time table and the content of the Conference to ensure that all outcomes would be achievable.

The Steering Committee requested the Executive Secretariat to identify the elements (in skeleton format) of a “Conference Declaration” to be presented to the Steering Committee. The FAO Conference should be used as an opportunity to secure inputs into the document, once it has been agreed by the Steering Committee. The “Declaration” should be as operational in nature as possible.  A representative of GRULAC, i.e. Paraguay introduced the document:"The Ministerial Agreement of Guayaquil" which could provide interesting inputs for better setting the final product of the Conference.

1. The Steering Committee agreed to have a Rapporteur who will have the ultimate responsibility for reporting the outcome of the ICARRD. The Rapporteur will be assisted by appointed “Friends of the Rapporteur”.

1. Conference rules and procedures

1. Rule 1, The Steering Committee agreed that delegations could include up to: one (1) head of delegation, no more than nine (9) accredited representatives and alternate representatives and fifteen (15) advisers. 
2. Rule 17, paragraph 3, The Steering Committee agreed on a general limit of five (5) minutes for all general statements.
3. Rule 6, The Steering Committee agreed that “Preparatory Committee” should be replaced by “Steering Committee”
4. Rules 5, 7, 8, The Steering Committee agreed that, following precedent, the President of Brazil should be invited to Chair of the Conference, with an appropriate nominee as acting chair (in the case of the 1992 WSSD, this was Brazil’s Minister of External Relations). The Steering Committee agreed that Vice-Chairs should be elected to represent each FAO region.
5. Rule 9, the Steering Committee agreed to retain the provision to have a General Committee should it be necessary, to include the Vice-Chairs as representatives from each FAO region.

1. Draft Paper on CSOs/NGOs participation.

1. Mr. Price, FAO Focal Point for cooperation with Civil Society organization, provided an update on the proposal of CSOs in planning their parallel event and participation in the conference.

1. Any other business

1. The Executive Secretariat reported on the Conference Communication Strategy

1. The full ICARRD website as was presented in Steering Committee will be operational within the next few days.
2. The possibility of Conference coverage by Earth Negotiations Bulletin will be reviewed by the Executive Secretariat and propose different options for decision of the Steering Committee.