FAO Conference resolutions

Resolution

1/2008

Adoption of the Immediate Plan of Action (IPA) for

FAO Renewal

(2009-11)

THE CONFERENCE

Reaffirming

FAO’s unique global mandate for food and agriculture and the Membership’s continued commitment to achieving the World Food Summit objectives and the Millennium Development Goals; reaffirming the contribution FAO must make to this and in addressing hunger and poverty reduction, the expansion of agriculture and food production, high food prices, climate change, and the expected impact of the recent financial crisis on the investment in agriculture, as well as the challenges and opportunities of bioenergy.

Reaffirming

in this context the necessity of FAO “Reform with Growth”.

Welcoming

the report of the Conference Committee on Follow-up to the Independent External Evaluation of FAO (

CoC-IEE

), including the Immediate Plan of Action (IPA), which provides a firm and realistic basis for FAO to significantly enhance its global relevance, efficiency and effectiveness in the service of all its Members .

Recognising

the active participation of all Members and the unfailing support of the

Director-General

and management in the process, and stressing the need for the same spirit of partnership to prevail in the implementation and completion of the reform:

DECIDES

to approve, for implementation, the Immediate Plan of Action for FAO Renewal (2009-11), including its annex, which forms in its entirety an integral part of this Resolution, which is given in Appendix E.

DECIDES

that amendments to the Basic Texts should be developed, for approval at its 36th session in 2009, to give effect to the provisions of the Immediate Plan of Action, and having noted the report of the

Committee on Constitutional and Legal Matters

at its 83rd Session (September 2008), further decides that pending such amendments to the Basic Texts:

the Technical Committees of the Council will report to the

Conference

on global policy and regulatory matters and to the

Council

on programme and budgetary matters; and

the Strategic Framework, Medium Term Plan and Programme of Work and Budget 2010-11 will be developed as specified in the Immediate Plan of Action, with no requirement for a Summary Programme of Work and Budget.

DECIDES

that implementation of the Immediate Plan of Action in 2009 requires funding by extra-budgetary contributions, and that its funding for 2010-2011 will be treated under the Programme of Work and Budget. In this connection, URGES all Member Countries to contribute extra-budgetary resources of a provisional amount of US$ 21.8 million for 2009 to a special Trust Fund established for this purpose. For transparency, the Trust Fund accounts will be publicly available and oversight will be provided by the Council supported by the

Finance Committee

DECIDES

to establish a time-bound Conference Committee (

CoC-IEE

) for the duration of 2009 under Article VI of the FAO Constitution for continued follow-up to the Independent External Evaluation of FAO , completing outstanding work within the Immediate Plan of Action. It will finalise its report on suggested Basic Text amendments in June 2009

In order that proposals for changes to the Constitution may be despatched to the Membership 120 days prior to the Conference as specified in Article XX, paragraph 4 of the Constitution.

and complete its final report by September 2009 for presentation to the Conference in November 2009.

This Committee will be open to full participation by all Members of the Organization . It will strive for transparency and unity in its work and will collectively decide its final recommendations to the Conference , arriving at its decisions to the maximum extent possible through consensus. The

Conference Committee

will undertake its work with the direct support of Working Groups and advice from the

Council

Programme Committee

, Finance Committee and Committee on Constitutional and Legal Matters as appropriate, without prejudice to the reporting of these Committees to the Council and their statutory functions. FAO management is expected to proactively support the Conference Committee and fully participate in its meetings and those of its Working Groups , providing timely documents for consideration.

The functions of the Committee , without prejudice to the statutory functions of the Council and its standing committees, will be:

to recommend to the Conference in 2009:

(1)

the new Strategic Framework, Medium Term Plan 2010-13 and the Programme of Work and Budget 2010-11 proposed by management on the new integrated results-based framework;

(2)

any changes found desirable in the size and regional representation in the Membership of the Council ;

(3)

further reforms of systems, culture change and organizational restructuring, including:

(a)

Dynamic follow-up to the reports of the Root and Branch Review by management, including early actions,

(b)

Initiation and review of the report of the study for an Organizational Risk Assessment and Management Framework,

(c)

Plans for increased effectiveness of the decentralized offices,

(d)

Detailed proposals for strengthened Human Resource management.

ii)

to recommend to the Conference in 2009 necessary changes in the Basic Texts as provided for in the Immediate Plan of Action, providing policy oversight and guidance of the process of revision of the Basic Texts. This work will be carried out on the basis of the recommendations of the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Matters, which will be provided directly to the Committee , and will be reviewed by the Council as appropriate.

iii)

to analyse the concept of “Reform with Growth ” and submit proposals to the 2009 Conference .

The Conference Committee :

will establish three Working Groups to prepare inputs for its consideration on:

(1)

the Strategic Framework, Medium Term Plan 2010-13 and the Programme of Work and Budget 2010-11,

(2)

proposed amendments to the Basic Texts and any changes found desirable in the size and regional representation in the Membership of the Council , and

(3)

reform of systems, culture change and organizational restructuring;

ii)

may further establish additional time-bound working groups as required; and

iii)

will appoint a Bureau consisting of the Chair and Vice-Chairs of the Conference Committee , one representative of Member countries per region and the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the Working Groups, participating as speaking observers. The Bureau will address exclusively administrative and organizational matters.

The Conference Committee modalities: the Working Groups will be made up of a Chair and Vice-Chair (or two Co-Chairs) appointed by the Conference Committee and will be open to all Members to fully participate with speaking rights. A maximum of three Member country representatives per region will be designated as spokespersons for their regions in each of the Working Groups . Meetings of the Bureau will be open to non-speaking observers from the FAO Membership as a whole. The work of the Conference Committee will be conducted in all languages of the Organization . Sessions of the Conference Committee , its Working Groups or Bureau will not be held in parallel with each other or in parallel with other major meetings of the

Rome-based UN agencies

, thus allowing the fullest participation of Members . The Chair of the Conference Committee and its Bureau and the Chairs of the Working Groups will ensure that aide-mémoires are available to the Members following each session.

DECIDES

to appoint as officers of the Conference Committee (CoC-IEE) : Prof.

Mohammed Saeid Noori-Naeini

Chair

and Ms

Agnes van Ardenne-van der Hoeven

and Mr

Wilfred Joseph Ngirwa

Vice-Chairs

of the Committee .

DECIDES

that the Council will monitor the overall progress of follow-up in implementation of the Immediate Plan of Action and report to the Conference at its 36th Session in 2009 and its 37th Session in 2011. It will receive regular quarterly progress implementation reports from management for its consideration and advice. The Council will be supported in its monitoring during 2009 by the Conference Committee . It will also receive inputs from the Programme Committee , the Finance Committee and the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Matters in their respective areas of mandate, which may flexibly convene additional sessions as required.

(Adopted on

19 November 2008

)

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