FAO Regional Conferences to strengthen food security and agriculture 12-03-2012 Series of meetings on issues, policies, innovation begins in Hanoi, 12-16 March meeting (FAO and andri luntungan)

A wholesale market. Produce is brought here from the countryside and distributed to retail outlets - Bangkok, Thailand 12 March 2012, Rome - The 31st FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific will be held in Hanoi, Viet Nam, from 12 to 16 March 2012. This is the first in an upcoming series of regional conferences designed to strengthen the Organization's contribution to the reduction of hunger and malnutrition, which affect more than 925 million people worldwide. The conferences will address a range of issues, including: • The state of food and agriculture in the region • Sustainable intensification and diversification of crops and agriculture • Climate change adaptation/mitigation in the crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors • Value chain development and post-harvest loss reduction for smallholder farmers • Policies to address food price volatility • Improving agricultural and rural statistics FAO's Regional Conferences are a key forum for discussions on policy and priority actions at the regional, subregional and country levels. With their new role in FAO's governance, they are taking an increasing importance as FAO enhances its institutional decision-making by more closely involving Members. This change is a result of the Organization's ongoing reform process and increased focus on decentralization, which will see FAO undertaking a bottom-up approach and more effective action at country level to impact on hunger reduction, sustainable agriculture and rural development. Decentralization aims to improve the capacity and performance of both country offices and headquarters; boost the Organization's capacity to plan, deliver and measure the results of its work at country level, and increase the effectiveness of its work with partners such as  governments, national experts, other UN agencies, the academia, research institutions, private sector and civil society. FAO Regional Conferences 2012 • 31st Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC), 12 - 16 March, Hanoi, Viet Nam • 32nd Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean (LARC), 26 - 30 March, Buenos Aires, Argentina • 28th Regional Conference for Europe (ERC), 17 - 20 April, Baku, Azerbaijan • 27th Regional Conference for Africa (ARC), 23 - 27 April, Brazzaville, Congo • 31st Regional Conference for the Near East (NERC) - date and location to be finalized Ministers and other high-ranking officials from countries throughout each region will participate to the meeting. Representatives of civil society and non-governmental organizations will also attend. For additional information, please contact: FAO headquarters FAO Media Office (+39) 06 570 53625 FAO-Newsroom@fao.org Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP)  Bangkok, Thailand Diderik de Vleeschauwer, Information Officer tel: (+66) (0) 2 697 4126 mobile: (+66) (0)81 899 7354 diderik.devleeschauwer@fao.org Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (RLC)Santiago, Chile Juan Toha tel: (+56) 2 923 2248 RLC-Prensa@fao.org Regional Office for Africa (RAF)Accra, Ghana tel: (+233) (30) 2675000 tel: (+233) (30) 7010930 FAO-RAF@fao.org Regional Office for the Near East (RNE) Cairo, Egypt tel: (+20) 2 33316000 FAO-RNE@fao.org Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (REU) Budapest, Hungary tel: (+36) (1) 4612000 REU-registry@fao.org