The European Food Security Group reacts to "Advancing African Agriculture"

From 23 to 25 April, the 66 session of the FAO Committee on Commodity Problems was held in Rome, in advance of the FAO Committee on Agriculture meeting (due to take place the following week). Civil society representatives organised two side events to prepare for the Committee on Commodity Problems meeting, which is always an important date for NGOs interested in agriculture, trade, and food sovereignty issues.
NGOs and civil society organisations were able to participate in the Committee on Commodity Problems as observers, once they were accredited to an international organisation, in this case, CONCORD. In the end, seven NGOs from the European Food Security Group (EFSG) were accredited through CONCORD, which meant that CONCORD was
represented on an FAO committee for the first time.

The main topics of interest on the agenda included:

• supply management, to raise international agricultural commodity prices – this was included on the agenda in response to the demands of the African group, which had raised this question within the scope of the WTO negotiations;
  
• the current situation and outlook for world commodity markets, including the implications of Chinese and Indian economic growth;
• the development of multilateral trade negotiations and consequences for markets and trade in commodities;
• special products as part of the multilateral trade negotiations;
• aid for trade in multilateral trade negotiations;
• analysis, preliminary findings and lessons learned from previously documented import surges.

For further information: mmiege@CONCORDeurope.org.

Source: CONCORD Flash - April 2007.

See also Euforic dossier on Africa.