IPC NEWSLETTER

NR. 1 - JUNE 2003

Feedback
Following the exchange of letters between DG Diouf and the IPC, from the 1st of march the Secretariat of the IPC finally initiated its activities. The agreement with the FAO was signed early in April by two organisations, FOCSIV - Volontari nel Mondo, which Director is Sergio Marelli, and Centro Internazionale Crocevia, which President is Antonio Onorati. You will see in attach the activities which they are responsible for.
The work carried out until now by the Secretariat (we would like to change the name into liaison or coordination point) has consisted most of all in facilitating the venue to the FAO technical committees to Rome by IPC representatives as well as in participating to those and other many meetings. A lot of translation of documents has also been done as well as the diffusion of general information through the mailing list.

Financial matters
As you already might know, the funds from the FAO arrived only in may, this is the reason why there have been some problems to pay all the expenses we had from march to may. We kindly apologise for the disturbs caused.
The main items financed until now are:
· Participation to the technical committees - air tickets and per diems;
· Secretariat functioning;
· Agroecology working group - contracts to the collaborators and to the consultant;
· Consultant to write down the financial project.

Activities and documents led by the coordination point
This document is a brief summary of the activities carried out by the Secretariat. If you desire to receive complementary information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

February:
- distribution letter from DG Diouf
- Translation and distribution answering letter to DG Diouf

March:
- The IPC Secretariat in Rome starts to work: Beatriz Gasco as a full-time personnel starts under the supervision of Andrea Ferrante and Antonio Onorati;
- Yahoo groups: a mailing list of the IPC is constituted in order to facilitate the communication within the network;
- Logistical organisation of FAO's Technical Committees CCP, COAG and Agroecology working group's meeting: booking hotels, e-mailing to the network, etc.
- 17-21: participation to the Committee on Commodity Problems together with John Mutunga (KNFU - Kenya), Paul Nicholson (Via Campesina) and Daniel Van der Steen (CSA - Belgium). On Friday the 21st the IPC presented a Side Event on Food Sovereignty chaired by Mr de Haen and with the presence of Mr Ali Gurkan and Mr Ramesh Sharma as FAO staff.
Documents:
§ Protection des petites exploitations familiales - Daniel Van Der Steen, CSA ;
§ Impact of WTO and other international rules on the autonomy of national agricultural policies. Case study of Kenya - John Mutunga, KNFU;
§ Food Sovereignty: the Near East Region's Perspective - Tahir Hasnain, Cenesta;
§ Food Sovereignty and the Right to adequate food - Paul Nicholson, Via Campesina.

- 24-26: IGWG Right to Food. Michael Windfuhr from FIAN led this meeting with the aim to present Civil Society's Contributions to the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group on voluntary agreements for assuring right to food.
Further infos at: windfuhr@fian.org
- 28-29: participation to the meeting of the Agroecology Working Group (hereinafter AWG) together with Ibrahima Seck, Dorothy Myers, Cristina Grandi and Patrick Mulvany;
- 30: meeting of IPC members and IPC-AWG participating to the Committee on Agriculture to prepare the side event and talk about the network. The representatives are Mario Ahumada, Razan Zuayter, Mercy Karanja, Elisabeth Atangana, Ndiougou Fall, Anamarija Slabe, Daniel Van der Steen, Carol Kalafatic;
- 31-4: participation to the Committee on Agriculture: plenaries and network meetings.
- 31: Agroecology Side event: the report from Patryck Mulvany that you already received is available.
Documents:
§ Agro-ecology COAG side event, Monday 31 March. Presentation of the NGO/CSO International Planning Committee (IPC) Agro-ecology proposal, IRAN ROOM, 12:45 pm. Presentation Leaflet (EN).
§ Presentation of the side event on agro-ecology by Patrick Mulvany, ITDG, in the name of the IPC Working Group on Agro-ecology, Report to the plenary meeting of the COAG, 3 April 2003 (FR - EN).
§ FAO and Agro-ecology. Strengthening the capacity of the FAO to support food production and food security of resource poor family farms. An IPC proposal.
§ Presentation of the side events to the COAG. 17th session of the Committee on Agriculture, Rome, 31 March - 4 April 2003.
§ Agroecologia en America Latina, Mario Ahumada, MAELA
§ A Near Eastern View at Agroecology, Razan Zuayter, APN
§ AGRICULTURE FAMILIALE -Voie pour la securité alimentaire - Revenus acceptables Gestion des ressources naturelles, Ndiougou Fall, FONGS
§ COAG 2003, agro-ecology side event: indigenous peoples' presentation

- economical report of the committees to Focsiv.
- production of a first draft for a funding proposal of the IPC network as from January 2004.

April:
- 31-4: participation to the COAG
- 10-11: participation to first meeting of NGOs willing to contribute to the Advocacy Campaign in the context of the International Alliance Against Hunger;
- preparation of the CFS: hotels and air tickets;
- translation and distribution of agri-research proposal from P. Mulvany and P. Mooney
- translation and distribution of the 1st draft from Dorothy Myers, consultant for the AWG

May:
- 10-11: participation to the "Meeting to discuss a proposed NGO advocacy campaign in the context of the International Alliance against Hunger" . The involved NGOs being present are: KNFU, Cenesta, AGPN, Via Campesina, Brot fur der Weld, FOCSIV, Bread for the World Institute,
- 12-16: participation to the Committee on Food Security together with Eduardo Vallecillo (Via Campesina), Razan Zuayter (APN), Maryam Rahmanian (Cenesta), Patrick Mulvany (ITDG), Mercy Karanja (KNFU),
- 19: FOCSIV receives the funds to pay the technical committees
- organisation of the AWG's meeting in June
- IPC project concept note to search funds by Andrew Betts, consultant; distribution of the document and query within the network
- Foodsovereignty.org website: basis and implementation
- Financial report for FOCSIV and for Centro Internazionale Crocevia
- Summaries of the agricultural research debate in Spanish and French distributed in Africa and Latin America

June
- 12: presentation of the IPC to the Government Representatives in the FAO
- Payments to the participants to the technical committees
- Participation to the AWG's meeting; solving logistic problems with them.