Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ROME463
2006-02-15 14:54:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Rome
Cable title:  

24TH FAO AFRICAN REGIONAL CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Tags:  EAGR AORC EAID ETRD SENV KUNR XA FAO 
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UNCLAS ROME 000463 

SIPDIS

STATE PLEASE PASS TO AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
USDA FOR U/S PENN, U/S BOST, LREICH, RHUGHES
STATE FOR IO/EDA, OES/E, E, EB/TPP/ABT, AF/EPS;
USAID FOR EGAT, DCHA/OFDA, DCHA/FFP, AFR/DP
NEW DELHI FOR LEE BRUDVIG

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR AORC EAID ETRD SENV KUNR XA FAO
SUBJECT: 24TH FAO AFRICAN REGIONAL CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
COMPETITIVENESS, BIOTECHNOLOGY, FIRE, LAND REFORM

UNCLAS ROME 000463

SIPDIS

STATE PLEASE PASS TO AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
USDA FOR U/S PENN, U/S BOST, LREICH, RHUGHES
STATE FOR IO/EDA, OES/E, E, EB/TPP/ABT, AF/EPS;
USAID FOR EGAT, DCHA/OFDA, DCHA/FFP, AFR/DP
NEW DELHI FOR LEE BRUDVIG

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR AORC EAID ETRD SENV KUNR XA FAO
SUBJECT: 24TH FAO AFRICAN REGIONAL CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
COMPETITIVENESS, BIOTECHNOLOGY, FIRE, LAND REFORM


1. Summary: The biennial African Regional Conference
(ARC) of the UN Agency for Food and Agriculture (FAO),
held in Bamako, Mali, from January 30 to February 3
highlighted the continent's lack of progress towards
achieving the Millennium Development Goals for reducing
hunger and poverty, and provided an opportunity to
identify strategies to correct this. Issues selected for
detailed discussion included competitiveness of African
agriculture; the African Seeds and Biotechnology Program;
biotechnology regulation; fire in the agriculture-
forestry interface; land reform; and information
dissemination. Reform of FAO and the Independent
External Evaluation of FAO also were briefly discussed.
End summary.


2. The ARC was attended by representatives of about 40
countries from the region, together with observers from
international organizations, NGOs, and from the U.S.,
France, Italy and the Holy See. Rome-based Alternate
Permanent Representative to the UN Agencies, Willem
Brakel, represented the USG. The first two days (January
30-31) were dedicated to technical discussions. A
meeting of African Union (AU) agriculture ministers took
place on February 1, followed by plenary sessions of the
ARC on February 2 and 3. Full documentation of the ARC
is available at www.fao.org. This cable selectively
highlights debates and discussions of particular interest
to USG audiences.

OPENING HIGHLIGHTS


3. The ARC plenary opened with a ceremony attended by
Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure, government
ministers and the diplomatic corps. Toure recalled the
crisis that recently affected the Sahel, during which
unfavorable climatic conditions were compounded by desert
locust outbreaks and caused widespread hunger. He
affirmed that the right to food is the first human right
that should be guaranteed, and questioned attempts to put

conditions on food aid. He had warm words of praise for
Director General (DG) Jacques Diouf (who he revealed once
held a Malian passport) and expressed support for the
latter's efforts to reform FAO.


4. DG Diouf, in his remarks, highlighted Africa's
decline in average per capita food production over the
past 40 years, and the drop in the continent's share of
global agricultural exports. He cited water, rural
infrastructure, fertilizer and financing as significant
constraints, calling on African governments to honor the
commitment made in the Maputo Declaration of July 2003 to
allocation at least ten percent of national budgetary
resources to agriculture and rural development within
five years. Diouf described current activities of FAO
designed to complement the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD) Comprehensive Africa Agricultural
Development Program (CAADP),adopted by African
agriculture ministers in January 2002.


5. The new Independent Chair of the FAO Council,
Mohammed Noori (Iran),elected last November, spoke of
the scourge of hunger during a time of unprecedented
wealth. He pointed to the limitations of the "invisible
hand" of markets, and suggested that FAO could be the
world's "visible heart" to address the hunger problem.
He pledged to work with members to reform FAO so that it
could better respond to current needs and realities.


6. The ARC technical sessions were organized as
discussions around several key themes, for which the FAO
Secretariat had prepared background papers. Highlights

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of the papers and discussions follow.

AGRICULTURAL COMPETITIVENESS


7. FAO's analysis on "Enhancing the Competitiveness of
Agriculture and Natural Resources Management under
Globalization and Liberalization to Promote Economic
Growth" was the starting point for discussions. The
paper called for urgent action to promote water control
technologies, raise productivity, improve farmer
incentives, promote use of modern agro-processing and
farm mechanization, improve business skills, support
vertical and horizontal linkages and farmer-market
linkages, promote appropriate policy measures, extension
services and research.


8. Participants generally concurred with FAO's analysis,
but underscored what they considered two key factors:
constraints on African farmers' potential to realize
economies of scale, and unfair competition in global
markets due to developed countries' agricultural
subsidies.


9. The U.S. observer delegate expressed support for
NEPAD's agricultural agenda, recalling the September 2005
USG announcement pledging $200,000 for CAADP annually
over the next five years. This support, he explained,
was in the context of the President's Initiative to End
Hunger in Africa, with a focus on increasing agricultural
productivity and rural incomes, with emphasis on the
poorest and most vulnerable groups. He noted that U.S.
official development assistance (ODA) to Africa had
increased substantially since 2000, and that the
President in 2005 had committed to a doubling of such
assistance by 2010. The U.S. representative pointed out
that trade and investment had the potential to provide
significant resources to the continent, far in excess of
ODA -- hence the importance of the Doha Development
Round, in which the U.S. had made ambitious proposals to
cut tariffs deeply and eliminate all trade-distorting
subsidies. He also highlighted significantly increased
USG contributions for trade capacity building, and noted
the benefits realized from the African Growth and
Opportunity Act (AGOA).

BIOTECHNOLOGY


10. The Secretariat had prepared two papers related to
agricultural biotechnology. The first of these outlined
a proposal for an African Seeds and Biotechnology
Program. The program goal is to increase food security
through establishment of effective seed systems with the
framework of the Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture. The AU would
implement the program within the NEPAD framework. It
would address Africa's present inability to take full
advantage of recent advances in seed sector development.


11. The Second FAO paper was on "Policy and Regulation
of Biotechnology in Food Production." The first sentence
of the Executive Summary captured the document's
generally precautionary, reluctant and worried stance
towards the technology: "Modern agricultural
biotechnology has become a highly controversial issue,
which has polarized the civil society in terms of the
potential benefits and risks of the adoption of genetic
engineering technologies and resulting products in food
and agricultural systems." The paper reviewed existing
policy and legal instruments, with a decided slant toward
approaches that treat biotech products as new, different,
and potentially threatening.


12. The two papers were discussed back to back, and the
themes raised by delegates tended to blend. Participants
generally welcomed the seed initiative, although several
called for increasing the emphasis on capacity building.
The discussion on utilization and regulation of
biotechnology included various reactions:

-- Morocco observed that biotech "offers considerable
opportunities" and therefore "should be applied" to help
address food needs.

-- Kenya opined that Africa needed to proceed with GMOs
"very carefully."

-- Libya stated that GMOs should be used to supplement,
and not to replace, conventional germ plasm.

-- Zimbabwe commented that "to play a meaningful role, we
[Africans] need to have the capacity to be players in
this game;" and "maybe some of the fears expressed about
biotech are the result of a lack of national capacity."

-- Nigeria said there needed to be "an indigenous
biotechnology" in Africa.

-- Mozambique described GMOs as an inevitable part of
globalization that also were an issue in food aid.

-- South Africa said biotech should be viewed as part of
a broad range of scientific techniques, not just genetic
modification, while many African countries are still
struggling with basic techniques such as tissue culture
and marker-assisted breeding. Support for these
activities needs to be sustainable. SADC has established
a regional advisory committee to inform decision-makers
about biotech and biosafety.

-- The observer from the Common Market of Eastern and
Southern Africa (COMESA) said the organization has been
working on a study to sample six of twenty member
countries, seeing the need to consult broadly with
stakeholders before there could be a harmonized position
on biotech.

-- Two NGO observers took a stridently anti-biotech line,
calling for a 10-year moratorium on all biotechnology in
Africa and demanding a ban on genetic use restriction
("terminator") technology.


13. Responding to participants' comments, the FAO
Secretariat's speaker from the African regional office

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proclaimed FAO's neutrality and deference to the policy
choices of member states, stating that the organization
was there only to assist states in implementation.
Significantly, however, this speaker went on to explain
how FAO could help a country that might want to ensure
that its borders are closed to GMOs. FAO's press release
at the opening of the ARC again reinforced the negative
aspects, with a sub-heading in bold type asserting that
"GMOs remain a source of concern."


14. The Report of the ARC Technical Committee summarized
the above discussion neutrally as follows: "Participants
also stressed the need to have an understanding of the
benefits and risks associated with the adoption and use
of biotechnology products and called upon public research
institutions to be in the forefront of research on
biotechnology while ensuring effective public awareness
and information sharing."


15. Comment: We subsequently learned in Rome that the
paper on biotech policy and regulation had been drafted
by a consultant hired by the FAO Regional Office in
Accra. Experts at Headquarters had seen several drafts
and had urged changes that the consultant chose to
ignore. There is no formal clearance process in FAO, and
the African Regional Office was free to make its own
decision on this. From the USG perspective, FAO's high-
profile State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) Report for
2003-4 on "Agricultural Biotechnology: Meeting the Needs
of the Poor?" remains the authoritative, scientifically
balanced FAO assessment. End comment.

FIRE; LAND REFORM; INFORMATION


16. The ARC also discussed FAO papers on "Fire in the
Agriculture-Forestry Interface" and on "Agrarian Reform,
Land Policies and the MDGs: FAO's Interventions and
Lessons Learned During the Past Decade." The latter
paper noted that "secure rights to land and greater
equity in land access are important for poverty
reduction," but that land interventions had received
limited recognition in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.
The paper will serve as a useful prelude to the upcoming
FAO International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural
Development (ICARRD),to be held in Brazil in March 2006.
There was also a paper presented on FAO's role as a
knowledge organization, and the current and future role
of FAO's World Agriculture Information Center (WAICENT)
framework.

HIV/AIDS; AVIAN INFLUENZA


17. The implications of HIV/AIDS for agriculture and
food security, although not a separate agenda item, came
up in various contexts, and was highlighted implicitly by
the conspicuous red ribbons worn by Malian President
Toure and many senior officials during the opening
ceremony. (HIV/AIDS had been notably under-emphasized
during the 2004 ARC in Johannesburg; this deficiency was
somewhat rectified in the current ARC.)


18. Several delegates expressed concern about Avian
Influenza and asked about assistance from FAO. The
Secretariat replied that FAO was involved in

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demonstration and capacity building activities, but that
FAO was not a financial agency for government-implemented
actions. (This discussion occurred a week before it was
publicly announced that the highly pathogenic H5N1
variant of the virus had been detected in Nigeria.)

FAO REFORM; INDEPENDENT EVALUATION; ARREARS


19. During the plenary session there was little time
available for discussion of FAO institutional questions.
The Secretariat had prepared a paper the Director
General's revised proposals for FAO reform, but
participants did not have a significant opportunity to
study the document beforehand or to discuss it. The
Independent Chair of the Council reported on his recent
consultations in Rome. He highlighted the Independent
External Evaluation (IEE) of FAO, and the importance for
broad participation in the voluntary funding of the IEE.
He also spotlighted the issue of members' arrears to FAO
-- a problem that he noted complicated the organization's
financial situation and could serve as a pretext for
others to scale back their contributions.


20. Kenya offered to host the ARC in 2008.

COMMENT


21. FAO's African Regional Conference provided a useful
forum for discussions of agricultural development in the
continent. At times, however, what was left unsaid in
the formal sessions was as important as what was made
explicit. In the discussion on biotechnology, for
instance, it was evident that delegations were taking a
cautious stance in public, while in a number of their own
countries research on biotech crops has already advanced
considerably. To cite another example, after the USG
statement highlighting the importance of trade and
investment, several delegates came up to the U.S. rep to
thank us for our comments, wishing that others had made
the same point. USG support for NEPAD and CAADP also was
quietly acknowledged and appreciated by some delegates in
the corridors.

CLEVERLEY