We are certain that this will contribute to improve the work of the Organization and make it possible for it to play its full role in keeping with its basic objectives as established in the texts.
The Director-General has taken measures at all levels, at financial, administrative and personnel levels, and we are pleased to note this
We feel that the medium-term programme which is being prepared by the Secretariat in keeping with the Resolution’s request will help us to identify the priority areas for the programme of the Organization in the light of the medium-and long-term needs of food and agricultural development throughout the world and will give us the necessary basic data and information which we need to prepare the Programme of Work and Budget for the coming biennium.
Furthermore, at the time of the detailed preparation of the Programme of Work and Budget the conclusions and recommendations of the technical committees can be taken into consideration more fully.
We want to focus briefly on several key elements of the resolution in this discussion
We would also support the efforts that have been made by FAO to strengthen the field inspection and the exchange of information on field projects. We are certain that the publication of a field project manual as well as a list of the projects will make it possible for the Member Countries to get timely and full information on the implementation of such field projects
In conclusion, we feel that the implementation of the recommendations of the Resolution will of course alt depend on the financial situation of the Organization itself.
The Chinese delegation is concerned by the fact that the implementation of the Conference Resolution has been affected by the very serious financial constraints. We hope therefore that all Member Countries will make all positive efforts so that the Conference Resolution can be implemented more extensively and more effectively.
Earl W. WEYBRECHT (Canada): I would like to thank Ms Killingsworth for her introduction to this item and also for the information she provided on recent developments.
My delegation appreciates the report that has been submitted to the session of this Council on the implementation of the review of certain aspects of FAO’s goal and operations. We note that this is a preliminary report to the Council and that a comprehensive report will be submitted to the Council and the Conference next year through the Programme and Finance Committees. Nevertheless, we welcome this report which we believe provides a quite clear perspective on steps taken to date to implement the resolution.
We accord the same high priority to the implementation of the review resolution that we accorded to its passage at the last Conference.
Canada had the opportunity to participate in a discussion on the Director-General’s report during the joint meetings of the Programme and Finance Committees in September. My delegation agrees with the general assessment provided in the report of the two committees.
We are pleased that progress has been made in relation to many of these elements and that undue attention has not been focused in the report on resource constraints.
Medium-term planning, for example, represented an important element of Resolution . We note that preparations are under way to issue the first medium-term plan for the period. We welcome the indication in the report that the views of the main technical committees will be sought on medium and long-term programme priorities and that these will be taken into account in the medium-term plan. In this context it is clearly vital that the complementarity be maintained between the medium-term plan and the programme of work and budget. We would thus welcome an indication as to whether there will also be a draft of the summe of Work and Budget available for COFO and COAG when these committees meet next spring. The views of these committees have been particularly helful in the past in focusing attention on priority areas within the individual sectors.