NGOs organize for action.

Abstract

NGOs, regionally and globally, made 1997 a year to consolidate the networking begun at the NGO Forum and the FAO Regional Conferences in 1996. They came together in meetings, strengthened their food security networks, and identified the major events of the next 3 years where the civil society voice for food security needs to be heard. The Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) held a regional meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, during August 5-8, 1997, which drew up a plan of action for World Food Summit follow-up on the part of Southeast Asian NGOs. This included calling for a food security clause in the review of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, joining the campaign for reform of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a focus on regional institutions (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and the Asian Development Bank), supporting national policies of food self-reliance (to reduce "food kilometers"--the distance between where food is produced and where it is consumed) and a baseline survey in 200 villages in 10 countries in order to compare food security indicators after 5 and 10 years.