A Donors' Conference in support of the ECO Regional Programme for Food Security (ECO-RPFS) was held on 8 May, 2008, in Antalya. Delegates from the ECO Member States and representatives of the ECO Secretariat and international organization including World Bank, JAICA, IDB, TIKA participated in it.
The Conference was jointly inaugurated by H.E. Mr. Vedat Mirmahmutogullari, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, and the ECO Secretary General Khurshid Anwar. The Undersecretary expressed his Government's readiness to support the ECO Programme for Food Security. He said Turkey would also participate in FAO's South-South cooperation initiatives.
The ECO Secretary General emphasized that implementation ECO-RPFS Project had assumed added urgency due to recent food crises. He urged the member states and Donors Institutions to extend maximum technical and financial assistance to the Project. The impact of its success would go beyond this region and help ease the wider food crisis.
Delegates from ECO Member States as well as international organizations expressed support for the ECO-RPFS. The plenary meeting was followed by bilateral discussions between ECO, FAO and Donors Institutions. Some of the concrete results were as follows:
1. The President of Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency TIKA offered to provide contribution in kind particularly, in such areas as capacity building, organizing workshops and coordinating technical assistance from Non-Governmental Organizations, the private sector and the Government of Turkey in support of the ECO-RPFS.
2. The Representatives of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Turkey Office, invited the governments of the ECO countries to apply through the local JICA offices for financial assistance to the RPFS.
3. The Representative of the World Bank that the Bank could provide financial support to the Program on requests from individual member countries. He also stated that the activities under the components of the RPFS needed to be prioritized.
4. The Representative of Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CIGAR) while emphasizing the importance of ECO-RPFS looked forward to closer collaboration with ECO and FAO within the framework of ECO-RPFS.
5. The Representative of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) reported progress in processing the TA's submitted to the Bank for financing. They were close to finalizing their comments on five out of ten project proposals, received for Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan.
6. The Representative of Deutsche German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) has also expressed support to RPFS.
7. The Representative of ECO Trade and Development Bank (ECOTDB) said that his Bank supported, in principle, the RPFS in the ECO region.
The Secretariat is in contact with the member states and donor agencies for follow-up action.
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