In
January 1996, members of G77 countries and China (mainly developing countries) held a
meeting in Georgetown, Guyana to review the agriculture sector. In the Georgetown
Declaration on Sustainable and Competitive Agriculture, the meeting agreed that
agriculture must be promoted as a complex of social, economic and technological
inter-relationships, based on the active involvement of a wide range of participants;
providing multiple and diverse opportunities for business, adding value and conserving
natural resources. Such an approach will provide the basis for improved quality of life,
and thus, contribute to social stability and sustainable human development. In addition,
delegates of the G77 and China sectoral review meeting acknowledged that "case
studies presented at the meeting provided important lessons for promoting agriculture and
rural development". They recommended, therefore, that those case studies and
additional ones should be compiled and disseminated in ways that would ensure that they
reach the key information users for the benefit of developing countries. To this end, the
Guyana Office of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA)
prepared a proposal that was submitted by the Government of Guyana, through its Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, to the Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund, administered by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP). That proposal, entitled South-South Transfer of Experiences
in Sustainable Agricultural Development, was approved by UNDP's Special Unit for Technical
Cooperation among Developing Countries (SU/TCDC). Following a period of consultation, IICA
and the Ministry of Agriculture signed an agreement for IICA to implement the project.
Implementation of this SARD Project
The Management Committee for this project, consisting of representatives of the Ministry
of Agriculture, Guyana; IICA and UNDP, held its first meeting on November 11, 1997.
Thereafter, a questionnaire was prepared and dispatched to the Caribbean and Latin
American-based offices of IICA, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development
Institute (CARDI) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), to collect information
on innovative projects and experiences in Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development.
A Project Coordinator was appointed in November 1998 and a Web Site Coordinator in
February 1999 to implement this project. The first issue of SARD Newsletter (ISSN
1560-9839), a monthly publication of the project, was prepared in December 1998.
Objectives of this SARD Project
This one-year project, which is based in Guyana, seeks to identify, document and transfer
to member countries of G77 and China innovative experiences and projects in the Caribbean
and Latin America which have contributed to, or have lessons for, sustainable development
of the agricultural sector and rural communities. Towards the completion of the project,
as many experiences as possible will be documented in brief profiles and 5 - 7 projects
will be documented in detail, both in writing and as part of a video documentary, for
dissemination to member countries of G77 and China.
A web site will be created to facilitate information dissemination and to foster
discussion among visitors to the site on various aspects of SARD.
As part of this project, the Government of Guyana is responsible for presenting the final
project document of case studies to G77 for dissemination to member countries.
|
