and their opinions. Now we will hear from the representative of this civil society and private sector. Now I would like to in the federation of rural adult catholic movement FIMRC and member the planning committee on food 70 IPC to please take the floor. Mr. Vishesh. Thank you Mr. Chair. We wish you all a happy women's day. I am here today on behalf of the millions of small-scale food producers and indigenous peoples of Asia and the Pacific whose representatives made virtually at regional level and face-to-face at national level last week to discuss FAO thematic papers and advance food sovereignty. And agroecology in our region. What follows is our collective wisdom on achieving these aims. Thank you to FAO for your ongoing commitment to ensuring civil society has a seat at the table where decisions that have a material impact on our lives and livelihoods are made. Actions to promote climate resilience. We would first urge the member states to think beyond climate resilience to climate justice which takes into account the legal, ethical and political aspects of climate change not only the ecological. We support and promote agroecology a climate resilient just agriculture that protects biodiversity addresses climate change and encourages food sovereignty. The three pillars of climate smart agriculture are to substantially increase productivity, enhance adaptive capacity and reduce greenhouse gases supporting the principles of sustainable development. However, climate smart agriculture has a strong focus on technologies, policies and financing rather than promoting small-holder agroecology solutions or acknowledging the financial and educational barriers they may face. At the shift from multilateralism to multistakeholderism proliferates across even platforms, corporations have continued to gain control of the narratives for change. They have substantially failed to take action against their own excesses in spite of decades of warning and calls for action. The Rio Earth summit was 30 years ago and the biodiversity losses are still accelerating in a spiralling death dance with climate change. Biodiversity in the Pacific. We must understand the fundamental differences between the corporate industrial model of agriculture versus the agroecology of small-holders. In the small-holder systems, diversity at the genetic species and ecosystem levels is common and valued. Biodiversity feeds, clothes and provides shelter and medicine for families and communities is nurtured for its cultural and spiritual values and provides ecological and economic resilience. A recent large-scale study found that small-holder agroecology increases biodiversity in the most cases with an average of 30% more species. As we heard from our brothers and sisters from the Pacific, we need mainstream biodiversity by centering the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and peasants. Inclusive digitalization. The FAO paper on inclusive digitalization tells us that corporates need to adapt their business model originally designed for large-farm from industrialized countries to suit the needs of small-scale farmers in Asia and the Pacific region. But the perennial problems of small-holders in Asia and the Pacific are more basic, many lack access to internet, smart phones and digital skills and cannot afford the high cost and skills of operate drones. Now we can ask whether do we need drones on small-holdings when the 80% people and 80% from on less than 2 hectares. On the input side, agribusiness are joining the trend of getting farmers to use their mobile phone apps to supply them with data on the basis that they can give advice to the farmers. On the output side, big e-platform corporations can be seen buying their way into the sector and taking control of food distribution. Together, they favor the use of technical inputs and costly machinery as well as the production of commodities for corporate buyers, but not for local markets. They encourage centralization, concentration and uniformity and are prone to abusing their power and monopolization. One health. We command updated definition of one health to include ecosystems. The transition to address prevention of disease and invasive pests arising from industrial livestock production at last is long about you, but very welcome. A question or note, the impact of strict care biodiversity surveillance and control measures on small-holders is rarely commensurate with the scale and risk of our system. In keeping with one health a process, biodiversity must start by making industrial livestock production safer to stop the rise of genotic diseases and microbial resistance where it originates. We command Robin elders paper to you with its strong focus on the importance of pertaining with small-holders, indigenous peoples and civil society in addressing the extreme challenges of increasing genotic diseases and invasive pests. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Vishesh, for your valuable perspective from the civil society, small-holders and family farmers. Now, we may hear from the private sector's interventions. And now, I invite Ms. May Kanokwan, Executive Director of Asia and the Pacific Seed Alliance, APSA, followed by CEDA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I am representing the regional seed industry and I would like to make a comment on item 15, State of Food and Agriculture in Asian Pacific region in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. We would like to thank FAO to provide us this opportunity to share our comments. So, here we would like to emphasize on the role of seeds as seeds are the primary basis of the food and agricultural supply chain system. So, smooth seed straight and the accessibility of quality seeds for farmers in the region are crucial to sustaining the region's food and nutrition, security and economic prosperity. During the pandemic, we have surveyed more than 100 companies inside and outside Asia Pacific region to monitor the impact of the pandemic on the overall operations of seeds and agricultural inputs companies. The report is now also published by the OECDC scheme. The result has shown as a strong impact on the seed trade followed by labor shortage, though there were gradual recovery by the late 2020. Still, many challenges and difficulties persisted, especially in the international seed trade. The COVID-19 pandemic actually escalated digitalization and innovation in many areas of the agricultural inputs and food supply chain. We have observed that in countries where digital tools were implemented, the impact of disruptions was less severe. Limitations on the adaptation and implementation of digital tools, especially in plants and plants products supply chain may hinder the ability to achieve food security and improve nutrition as part of sustainable development goal, especially goal number two zero hunger. So to streamline and facilitate international trade and such address many of the aforementioned challenges, a strong framework for public-private partnerships and private-private partnerships is key as a strong international cooperation and framework for human resource development. Governments should recognize agricultural inputs as essential commodities and thereby formulate policies that enable ease of doing business for the domestic input industry as well as facilitate and incentivize foreign direct investment. We urge that the harmonization of vital sanitary requirements concerning the international movement of seed be based on scientific basis in accordance with ISPM 38. This approach will be conducive to predictable international seed movements, which is crucial for food security and economic prosperity for all of our countries. It is also important that governments communicate clearly and in advance when there is a change in rules or new measures that will come into force. This will enable seed producers to have adequate time to prepare their quality management systems and adapt to changes in time and thus entering farmers will have access to quality seeds without any disruptions to their sewing schedules, which is critical to sustaining sustainable agri-food systems on the local, regional and global levels. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much, Ms. Kanukhwan, for your comments. May I now request the representative of SEEDUP. The floor is yours. Excellency Chairman, Vice-Chairs, Distinguished delegates from Asia-Pacific countries, FAO representatives, ladies and gentlemen, It is my great honour to address at this 36th session of APRC on behalf of the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific CERDAF in the Governmental Organization. I would like to address in particular the Item 16 on actions to promote climate resilience agriculture system in the Asia-Pacific region. As you know, agriculture and aquaculture are important sources of food, nutrition, income and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people around the world. The global climate is changing and its impact associated with the accumulation of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. From human activities, change in mean temperature, shifts in season and increasing intensity of extreme weather events are already occurring and is predicted to worsen in the future. So millions of people, particularly those in developing countries, are facing shortage of water and food and greater risk to health. Therefore, it is critically important to address these climate change challenges especially in many Asia-Pacific countries, which are highly vulnerable. CERDAF and their partners have played a vital role in implementing many activities for climate change mitigation and adaptation in fisheries, agriculture, agriculture such as improving knowledge of climate change and related natural disasters and their impacts for policymakers, researchers, development practitioners and other stakeholders and strengthening adaptive capacity to the impacts of climate change and related natural disasters in their member countries. To overcome these challenges, four groups of strategic actions should be established as regional initiative as follows. Group one, increasing the climate resilience of farmers, farming system and breed available for farming. Group two, increasing capacity to manage short and long term climate risk and reduce losses from weather related disasters. Group three, improving sustainability of genetic diversity in livestock as a resource for long term continuous adaptation to climate change. Group four, finding the potentials and developing the capacity of agriculture, agriculture in mitigating the impact of and or sequestrate the release of greenhouse gas emissions. It is suggested that combined efforts should be made for setting up a digital platform for regional climate change impact assessment, showing the possible effects of climate change on agriculture, agriculture in different countries. Over the next 15 years, such as increasing temperature, change in rainfall patterns, storm intensity and frequency, increased carbon dioxide level and sea level rise, this will be done jointly with FAO family farm knowledge platform and this would provide reliable and up to date database and decision support system for governments, private sector, industry and farmers with information to make informed choice about how they should be adapting their agriculture, aquaculture development and production system and related industries to climate change, defining adaptation strategy for the main environmental disease and genetic threats caused by climate change to inform and guide local community organizations or cooperatives, communicating the results of the vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning and strategy at all levels and implementing pilot projects on adaptation and providing capacity building required to better manage farming system. So that NACA, their country member and partners will collaborate and cooperate with FAO and other UN specialized agencies for building climate resilience in aquaculture and agriculture system for supporting 500 millions of small scale and subsistence farmers in Asia and the Pacific region. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you very much. The distinguished representative of the civil society organization CDAF. Now I invite the distinguished representative of the civil society organization IAFN to take the floor please. Thank you chair. I would just clarify I'm intervening on behalf of the private sector. Thank you for this opportunity. In particular, it would be great to be able to speak specifically on item 18, identifying one health priorities in Asia and the Pacific region. Again, thank you chair and distinguished guests for the opportunity to intervene. Here are some private sector perspectives I would like to share. At no time has a vital role for one health been more evident. One health maximizes efficiencies in human and animal health and the private sector including the private sector mechanism of CFS is pleased to see FAO is coordinating with WHO and OIE using this approach. Since greater alliances between animal and human health researchers are needed to manage disease. Prioritizing coordinating action to exchange the valuable scientific data and information will be key. And lessons learned from COVID African swine fever and other animal and human health crisis should be shared amongst all stakeholders. These lessons can help governments make the best evidence based decisions required to identify the correct actions in the most efficient manner. For this reason, we're very pleased to know FAO aims to strengthen and expand its one health tripartite coordination with WHO, OIE, and through the regional tripartite coordination group. We follow this closely. Private sector is also keen to provide its support and recognizes the importance that multi stakeholders have to play in this collaboration. We would be remiss as private sector we failed to mention the crucial role of Codex and Mentarius in protecting the health of consumers while enabling trade and agricultural products. This activity benefits farmers and consumers. And as a result, enabling Codex to perform its role more effectively and efficiently by addressing current capacity challenges, embracing new scientific and administrative methods of value evaluation and ensuring adequate resources are available are essential actions in supporting global food security and trade. Delays in the establishment of standards and the resulting lack of national and international harmonization have had important consequences for market access, productivity, farmer livelihoods and all this to achieve one health. As has been an underlying by FAO countries need solid scientific knowledge on various topics covered by Codex with Ontario's and its work to assist countries in developing these capacities and incorporating Codex standards and practices across value chains is vital. As many have said before, mentioning the importance of the livestock sector in regards to one health, this is also the case. It's worth noting the vital role that livestock plays in all regions of Asia, Asia, including Central Asia. One billion people are involved in livestock value chains globally, with about half of these dependent on livestock for the livelihoods. Two thirds of the world's poor livestock keepers are women will note this and hope you will remember that considering as the international day of women. Globally, the livestock sector contributes an average of 40% to agricultural post domestic product. And disappointingly though, livestock development is generally less than 4% of agriculture development budgets. The sector proportionately needs a much higher level of investment, but this investment couldn't include innovation. And this is particularly true in animal health and the management of zero noses. FAO should see its role to assist and improve all agricultural systems and innovations as they contribute to this technology such as animal health vaccines, diagnostics tracking and treatment are essential. There is a vital role for digital agriculture, coaching innovation and proper animal husbandry among the areas where there is vital need to scale up resources. And much of this investment is currently being made by the private sector, but without the value of vital efforts of animal health companies and academic bodies innovations can help manage animal health risks, but they can't get to the market if we're not all working together. We count on FAO's leadership in the standards that facilitate global agriculture, the provision of the service is a public good, and its reputation is built on scientific and technical rigor. This needs to be revitalized to ensure evidence based and and this relies on FAO scientific capability of discipline experts. So it's extremely important that the functions of FAO in these areas be adequately funded, particularly the provision of independent scientific advice. This includes the need for member states to provide technical experts to join the efforts and to codex. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, distinguished representative from IAFN. I would like to request the distinguished representatives who will be talking next to limit their interventions within three minutes. May I now request distinguished representative of RTA technology for our intervention please. Mr. Samir Pandit. Thank you, chair. I am very thankful to the FAO for this Asia Pacific Digital Conference 36. I am Samir Pandit from the private sector. To start the initial, I continue with the comments from the member state delegates of the Korea and the New Zealand. We believe it would play a key role in the important digital agriculture and unlocking the power of the Asian for the smallholder and indigenous people. Digital technologies have the power to increase inclusion in the food system, linking farmers directly to the markets, splitting their payments and their repair returns. It can improve access to the information, rural advocacy, advisory services, resources and equipment, including for smallholder. Digital agriculture can also allow farmers to be more nature positive by making more efficient use of resources and farming with the precision to more ecological zone, even zone within the field. It can also help measure the changes in the food system through use of technologies like near-train freight sensing to see how our souls and our crops are doing. Digitalization shows us a path to normalize the opportunity to empower avenues for equal opportunities within the diverse groups such as the indigenous people, remote and or from the developing countries, developing area. In the sense of access to the transport market, capital, finance and insurance. The Asia Pacific region and the FAO should make digital agriculture more accessible for all to unlock all these benefits with a few points. The point one, call for the rural infrastructure and the bandwidth. Without access to the broadband, entire communities are left behind in tourist information to an economy. Particularly those in rural areas, a farm food system must address the lack of connectivity and related infrastructure to connect communities and create greater opportunities for the rural people. Second point, increase availability of the cloud computing in rural area. Cloud computing can be used to aggregate data from tools like soil sensors, satellite images, weather stations to help farmers to make better decisions about managing their crops, understanding their production environment. Prizes are frequently prohibited in rural areas and developing countries. This should be putting a priority on accessibility. The point number next, use of remote sensing for global output of the environment health. Soil head is a critical for the food production. Remote sensing gives the soil moisture data and helps in determining the quantity of the moisture in the soil and hence the type of crop that can be grown in the soil. Through remote sensing, farmer can tell where water resources are available for given land and whether the resources are adequate. Land use calculation are equally important and assessment of the crop rotation are extremely useful for the extreme weather. This could allow us to dramatically speed up the rate of which we can understand the agriculture system and measure its improvements. Early warning system for drought and weather related issue. Digital early warning system helps farmers and scientists to get ahead of the weather. The next point, digital inclusivity, value chain blockchain digital technologies are changing the agriculture food system. Example different stages of agri-food change can support trade and trade security in the private sector to supply to the new market. The next one is the deterioration in agriculture must consider subsidization at various level. Subsidization of new technologies like electric vehicles and green energy has helped to advance their adaptation. Similarly, support for the adaptation of digital technology in agriculture will advance the green and inclusive solution for the agri- digital agriculture system. As the new digital platform begins to work, we encourage groups like CFS Private Sector Mechanism Digital Association to include regular parts of the engagement and the Asian companies are to able to bring their expertise to agricultural service around the world. To increase impact solidarity and agglitivity, it is important that the private sector must work hand in hand with the FAO, governments and other parties. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Pundit, for your contribution. May I invite Mr. Stuart Oda, Alaska Life Technologies to make an intervention. Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you very much for the opportunity to intervene. Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, good morning, good afternoon to everyone. My name is Stuart Oda and I'm the founder of Alaska Life, an Asia Pacific based agricultural technology company that builds turnkey vertical farms and precision agricultural solutions to help farmers maximize their productivity and efficiency by enabling data access and analytics. Our organization's vision is very much aligned to the FAO's vision to democratize access to fresh and nutritious food by democratizing how food is grown and to democratize the knowledge of that production. Digital agriculture is incredibly important given the complexity of the food supply chain and how interconnected and how vulnerable the food system is to disruption as it has been really highlighted by the pandemic. While much of the attention over the past five years has really focused on the downstream digital innovations, what the pandemic has really brought to light is the opportunity for digital innovations to make improvements to the upstream aspects of the value chain. And this isn't very important for creating more to improve community resilience to democratize access to healthier safer foods and nutrition to create a more inclusive digital ecosystem. Technology can really play a vital role in accomplishing all these all these aspects. And as was mentioned by the previous delegates and speakers and not to repeat any of these things, climate resilience initiatives are really focused on one critical factor, which is access access to data access to technology access to infrastructure and access to financing. And there are many roles to be played by the by access to critical telecommunications and infrastructure and kind of cloud computing infrastructure that was mentioned by the previous delegates that can allow and really unleash the opportunities of that access to data and technology can provide for many of the the the primary producers in across Asia Pacific. And what's really exciting about the opportunities here is that as climate changes is in the office of climate change are really accelerating the, you know, the farmers have to make decisions that need to be corrective actions need to be taken much in a much more shorter period of time. And in this environment having access to digital tool sets and services is critical for farm operations to not only survive over the next five years but to really thrive in the long term. Agriculture companies from around the world are developing low cost remote monitoring and automation devices to enable faster decision making smart phone based farm management software to improve efficiency and traceability and artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to enable long term yield and plant health monitoring and all these tools that are helping to create a much more resilient much more productive, productive, efficient and consistent food supply chain. And while many of these digital solutions were initially developed for application in high tech vertical farms or greenhouses, and maybe in locations that are more sophisticated agri food supply chains. The industry is rapidly adapting their technology for use and more traditional low tech greenhouses, as well as in field farms. And as part of this transition to more mass market access and affordability, the private sector in partnership with public sector entities, as well as in line with government policy are working to make these tools available not only to legacy food producers, but also to the larger generation, and the professional small medium enterprise farmers as well. And in many cases, this has required a rethink of the existing business model, such as making digital solutions available free of charge to farmers in order to create a truly inclusive digital ecosystem in partnership and in coordination with the public sector. Ensuring the successful transformation the agri food Asia Pacific food system to be more equitable and climate resilient truly requires cross border and cross sector cooperation and sharing of ideas and solutions. And we're encouraged every day by the many private sector players that are working to bridge the data and the digital divide. And I'm very personally excited about by the speed of the technological innovation, the improvements in access and affordability that are provided by many of the improvements and milestones that are met by both the private and public sector, and ultimately the adoption of these solutions to improve outcomes for farms and for farmers. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr order for your contribution. Due to time constant, we have to close this intervention sessions are shortly, but before that I would like to request, is there any intervention from the observers, especially from the events. I see no request so I would like to ask you all to send your written interventions to the APRC secretariat and will post them on the APRC web page as part of your official step into any. I can see the request from IUCN so I'd like to request the distinguished representative from IUCN to take the floor please. Thank you very much.  At the same time, we also need to recognize the discrimination the women face, which prevent them from utilizing the full potential to bring solutions for the twin problem we are facing nowadays, climate change and biodiversity loss. IDBS in 2019 reports reported that by focusing on food production both in isolation from other consideration agriculture has become the leading driver of global land use change in biodiversity loss, which also contributing malnutrition, exervation of inequality, inequitable land and resource rights and other undesirable outcomes. Environmental hazards generated by agriculture threaten the viability and sustainability of production, land degradation, pollution of water resources, decline in pollinators and other hazards as already compromising the agricultural sector while compromising ecosystem services like water supply and climate regulation. Achieving a sustainable food agriculture system therefore requires action in three areas, address consumption behavior and demands of agricultural land, reduce food laws and waste, achieve sustainable agricultural production. Support for sustainable agricultural production is closely aligned to the concept of nature based solutions contributing to social societal outcomes such as food and water security and climate change adaptation and mitigation while depending on gender equality, resource rights, local and indigenous knowledge. Land health is at the heart of sustainable agriculture and while it is not a scientifically defined term, it is an effective concept for fostering dialogue between actions in agriculture and conservation sector as demonstrated by IUCN's common ground dialogue. With that, we offer a neutral platform to convene the government, state actors, private sector NGOs and civil society to work on a common future. This is all I have to say. Thank you Chairman. Over to you. Thank you very much. Distinguished representative of IUCN. Now, it's time to hear from the FAO teams. I now request the FAO technical officers responsible for these five papers has been presented to respond to these comments and questions. I call on Mr. Ajiz Elveri, FAO senior economist to respond to the comments on the state of food and agriculture paper. Mr. Elveri, please take the floor. Thank you Chairman. Thank you colleagues. My name is Ajiz Elveri and I have been following along with my technical team colleagues following the comments from the member countries, both in the session but also the written comments received before. There are just a few general reflections. We have taken notes of all of your very insightful inputs. We appreciate the recognition by member states of the effort FAO has put in and following and providing the information under COVID response and the impacts and the commitments to follow up on this ambitious programme. We notice an insightful comment from Japan that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. We also welcome the comment from New Zealand that we recognise that different countries are at different stages of development and all digitalisation has been mentioned across the board as one of the key drivers for agri-food transformation. We are also aware that it needs a lot of nuancing and policy support and capacity development commensurate with the countries priorities, needs and capacity. We have also noticed additional feedback from member countries on other experiences and lessons learned from the COVID responses so far but also the way forward. We are taking note of that and committed to move forward now in presenting and deepening our assessment and support to countries as they move from short-term response to long-term building back better agri-food systems focusing on digitalisation that is inclusive, that reaches small scale farmers and vulnerable groups that build capacity as well as building the social protection, safety nets and also linking COVID response to climate resilience and the measures associated with that which were also tabled for items 16 and the others. So in short, number of insightful viewpoints tabled here, we take note of them and we'll be ready to respond in writing to all of them in detail. Over to you Chairman, thank you. Thank you Mr. Aziz Elveri. I know, call on Mr. Birdaman, FAO natural resources officer to respond to the comments on the paper on actions to promote climate resilient agri-food systems. Mr. Davon, the floor is yours. Thank you very much Mr. Chair and I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank member countries and observers for sharing experiences and challenges with adopting measures to promote climate resilient agri-food systems across the region. I've noted some of the specific areas for innovation and support that were identified by member countries including things like evidence based approaches for strengthening resilience, agro-myrological advisory services, insurance and early warning systems, seed systems and materials for climate resilient varieties and also low emission value chains. I also noted the need to ensure that scaling up action should be tailored on the specific national circumstances of the countries in question and implemented in a consultative manner that meets the needs of small holders, local communities and marginalized groups while also taking advantage of the interest of other agri-food system actors to support such as the climate change and some of the digital service providers we've heard from today. I also welcome support from member countries to engage in learning and exchange opportunities across the region on these and related topics. FAO stands ready to support on these and other priorities for climate resilient agri-food systems that have been highlighted here today and also in national development and climate change policies such as the nationally determined contributions as well as countries interest to engage in new measures such as the global methane pledge that was highlighted by our delegate from Vietnam. The issues raised by member countries reflected in the regional priority work areas for FAO in the region in 2022 and 2023 particularly on accelerating sustainable natural resource management for biodiversity conservation and climate action as well as related efforts we are undertaking to scale up climate finance investments in every food systems across the region. So just to close Mr. Chair I'd like to say that I'm looking forward on behalf of the FAO team to continuing to work with our member countries to strengthen the resilience of our agri-food system in the region to ongoing and future climate change. Back to you Mr. Chair. Thank you Mr. Damon. I now request Miss Iwa Galvez Nogales, FAO agriculture officer to respond to the comments on the paper on digitalization in agricultural value chains. Miss Galvez Nogales please take the floor. Thank you Chair. We are very thankful for the comments, the different perspectives shared and for the suggestions received today. Today and also through the written comments that we have been receiving these days. I would like to react to the comments on item 17 on digitalization with some general reflections. We truly appreciate the alignment and the recognition from member countries, civil society, private sector and others that digitalization is a key driver for rural transformation and it has the potential to unlock many benefits for all those in the agri-food value chain in Asia and the Pacific region and contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals. At the same time we appreciate the many challenges that are facing these actors in the value chains as was noted by the representative from Bangladesh and in particular we would like to express our willingness to make digitalization accessible to all to indigenous group and it was highlighted by the representative from New Zealand also to Jews as it was commented by the representative from Japan women particularly today that it's the International Women's Day and in reaction to comments regarding the need to provide appropriate technology for farmers in the region that it may not be sophisticated solutions that may be appropriate in other contexts. We would like to emphasize that FAO approach always starts with assessing the needs of family farmers, small entrepreneurs and other actors of the value chain in order to provide them with appropriate technologies so they can access markets, finance, insights, information that can help them make better decisions regarding the crops, livestock and protect the environment. And the second step would be then to build the local innovation and digitalization ecosystem including through improving infrastructure, building the skills and supporting local agri-tech startups that may provide services to family farmers. We would like also to welcome the support that many delegates have expressed from their countries to foster regional collaboration and also collaboration at global level in coordination with the private sector, academia and all those involved in making this digitalization inclusive for all. We have many activities planned for this biennium to scale up inclusive digitalization. We will continue working with the 1000 digital village initiatives with the international platform as well for digital food and agriculture and as it was mentioned again we will continue supporting the seeds solutions for them. Thank you. Back to you Mr. Chair. Thank you very much, Ms. Galvez Nogales. Ladies and gentlemen, we have received a request from our member countries. So now the distinguished delegation of Timolist, you are requested to take the floor. Distinguished delegation of Timolist, please unmute yourself first and then start your deliberation. Thank you Mr. Chairman. This is my honor to represent the government of Timolist in today and congratulate the government of Bangladesh for the 36th Regional Conference for Asia and Pacific. We are here to reaffirm our commitment in contributing to the global actions in combating hunger, main food security and reduce poverty. According to the COVID-19, the government of Timolist to the Mesovaric culture is responding to the recovery of the economy. But as to know that the newest country we have developed, we have facing multirational changes, but by using the management including all the activities for the agriculture, fisheries, agriculture and also the livestock. Mr. Chairman, in the past five years Timolist continued the experience to increase the incidence of a number of diseases in animal, human and plant. Timolist is also facing the problem of African swine fever in 2020 that almost wipe out all the peak population in Timolist and the COVID pandemic. The attack of the all-arm warm on corn and other crops that lead to fail-producing the country. But the government was taking the policy to respond to that. So in order to guide the intervention of the agricultural sector over the five years, we have established the strategic plan for 2025. And we have the four mutually reinforcing strategy objectives to sustainably increase the production and the productivity of food crops, livestock and fisheries, forestry and industrial crops. The sub-sector to improve the value added or value addition and access to domestic and industrial markets to enhance sustainable natural resource management, utilization and conservation and to enhance the good governance and The strategic development plan of Timolist highly recommends sustainable agriculture and natural resource management in the rural areas for the country to generate income and create employment for the years. Mr. Chairman, as a part of the intervention on behalf of the government, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, during the consultation in Delhi on 18th February 2022, the national consensus that the government of Timolist will further strengthen the collaboration with FAO in the area of policy, research and extension, which is promote the climate resilience agricultural food system, one health system and inclusive agricultural value chain. We look forward to continue to learn and share with all of you, FAO members, countries for this reason. In Kalkozi, I would like to call for continued efforts and collective action to address the hunger, the food insecurity and reduced poverty in our region through better collaboration, learning and sharing among all countries of this region. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Distinguished delegation of Timolist. Ladies and gentlemen, now we'll again back to the response of the FAO officials. Now I call on Mr. Scott Newman, FAO senior animal health and production officer to respond to the comments on the one health paper. Mr. Newman, please take the floor. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman and good afternoon to colleagues. First and foremost, we want to express our appreciation for all of the written feedback, as well as the additional feedback received here today through this regional conference. I think that we recognize especially in lieu of COVID-19 and the links that exist largely between disease transmission amongst wildlife, livestock, people and the implications that these diseases pose for livestock production and agricultural production as well as conservation issues for wildlife populations ultimately the public health impacts that these diseases continue to challenge us and require us to take a more formalized one health approach to mitigate and prevent impacts. I really appreciate the comments that we've received that really help us solidify our approach to expand one health and to focus on one health policy interventions and coordination mechanisms inclusive of the ministries responsible for environment and natural resource management in addition to the traditional one health partners that we've been working with for many years from both the veterinary sector as well as the public health sector. We also very much appreciate the important note to ensure that partnerships include the small holders, the local community, civil society and private sector to implement one health successfully in addition to including and maintaining the relationships with our traditional government counterparts. We also recognize that one health should focus on expanding support in the area of capacity development that incorporates linkages between environment and health and the importance of protecting the environment and natural resources to safeguard our own health and the health of animals. As well, it's noted that we should consider how to effectively incorporate Codex Alimentarius and other food safety and AMR elements into the one health work that comes in the future. As well, it was noted several times by several interventions that transboundary animal diseases as well as plant pests continue to pose major threats to food security and impact production and food security. So the food and nutrition angles as well as these food security angles in the context of addressing transboundary animal diseases as well as plant pests needs to be maintained as a priority area for us in going forward with our one health work. And where possible, I also note that it was mentioned several times the opportunity to increase innovations and technologies apply to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these production systems and prevent diseases. And finally, I want to mention that it was noted several times that one health should continue to support capacity development programs on zoonotic diseases, transboundary animal diseases, surveillance, diagnostics, and response to antimicrobial resistance as well as identifying key areas for expansion with the wildlife and environment sectors. So as we move forward in the next biennium, we have many areas of work that will focus on maintaining the work that we are doing already with the sectors we've been working with, but also to look at how to expand and identify priority areas for a broadened one health approach that aligns with the tripartite plus UNEP's vision in the global action plan for one health. And also is a regional tripartite priority, which is really the expansion of one health going forward. So thank you very much for all of your insightful comments. We really do appreciate and we'll take them on board as we move forward with one health programming at FAA. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Newman. I now ask Ms. Yau if you serve regional representative for the Pacific to respond to comments on the paper on biodiversity in the Pacific Islands. Ms. Yau, you may take the floor please. Your excellency, Mr. Chair, thank you very much for giving the floor. First of all, on behalf of AFU team, I thank the insightful remarks made by the delegation and also the observers right now, but also the writing comments provided online. We took all the interventions with the high attention and importance and will incorporate them in our work onwards when I was suitable. So from the deliberations today and also the writing comments, we hear that the biodiversity degradation challenge occurring not only in the Pacific, but also in Asia countries as well. So from there, we see opportunities to facilitate to the knowledge exchange across those two continents Asia and the Pacific, and also to share the good practices between us. And also we hear this very common recognition of the importance of biodiversity mainstream across the agriculture sectors, namely crop, livestock, fishery and forestry, not only for the immediate agenda of food and nutrition security, but also for the long sustainability. So I feel appreciates the members acknowledgement of AFU's ongoing work and commitment to mainstreaming biodiversity across the agriculture sector in the Pacific region, including the promotion of the ecosystem based approach. AFU support is and will continue to be designed in partnership with and also based on the needs of the countries using holistic approach, including the cost-benefit analysis to identify and address the trade-offs in each context. In the broader framework of the implementation of this newly proposed regional priority, titled Building Sustainable and Resilient Agri-Food Systems in the Pacific, Small Islands Developing States, I feel will continue to strategically engage with the key regional partners such as SPC, CEPRAP and also the members in the region to strengthen the biodiversity work under the all agenda of the agri-food system transformation in the Pacific region. I feel also appreciate that the members are supporting the development of this Pacific-specific regional action plan to increase the mainstreaming biodiversity across agriculture in the Pacific region. We believe that this new development of the action plan will contribute to accelerating food system transformation and achieving SDGs in the Pacific region. And I feel would ensure the delegates and also all the participants that the Pacific biodiversity action plan to be developed will engage all those stakeholders in the region but also broad including the governmental sectors, CSOs, private sector and others concerned in its development process to ensure a participatory approach. And also we believe this participatory approach developed such a biodiversity action plan in the Pacific will also generate good buy-ins for its further implementation in the Pacific. With this, I thank you very much for your kind attention. Give the floor back to you, Mr Chair. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Yau. I now ask Miss Kazumi Ikeda-Larhad, FAO Chief Administrative Support Officer to say few words on the paper, the multi-year programme of work 2022 to 2025 for the FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific. Miss Ikeda-Larhad. Thank you, Mr Chair. On the agenda item number 23, multi-year programme of work for the Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, FAO would like to thank the members for all the constructive comments, suggestions and the endorsement of this document. We would like to reiterate the strategic importance of the Asia Pacific Regional Conference as an integral part of FAO's governance structure. APRC is a consensus-based and inclusive forum for dialogue and engagement. APRC is to promote the collaborative actions to achieve for better, better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life across this region. FAO would like to continue our close and deeper collaboration through the APRC in the coming years. Thank you very much, Mr Chair. Over back to you. Thank you very much, Miss Kazumi Ikeda-Larhad. Now I would like to request the rapporteur to actually summarise today's discussions. So back to the rapporteur. Thank you, Chair. Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. Let me present the summary report from the rapporteur's part. We thank the countries for their responses to the four substantial technical agenda items 15-19 and 23, deliberated by the senior officers meeting in this session. I will provide the short summary of each of the agenda item and country responses in turn, but it's quite difficult task to summarise all those valuable reach inputs within the short time frame. Item number five, state of food and agriculture in Asia and the Pacific region in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Message and take a voice. It is noted that COVID-19 has disproportionately affected different groups, particularly in the most vulnerable areas. And member nations called on FAO to continue its support to governments with policy advice, measures, tools, practices and programming and social production to overcome the COVID-19 impacts. Helping you to enter smart farming and digital upscaling and for many countries developing urban food agriculture through digital innovations in this critical to improve the food security in the post pandemic situation. Item number 16, actions to promote climate resilient agri-food system in the Asia and the Pacific region. There are rich, valuable and wide inputs in this aspect. Member countries highlighted a wide range of measures and approaches as well as challenges to promote climate resilient agri-food systems in the region, including developing climate resilient varieties, crops and livestock instance for society. There are also small-holders urban agriculture commitments to reduce emissions in agriculture value chains. Same way emphasize the need or innovations in promoting resilience and investment in agriculture research and development in addressing these challenging challenges. Member countries highlighted that actions will needed to be tailored to the specific national circumstances and local priorities and experiences while promoting a project for the learning and exchange through common data sharing platforms across countries in the region and globally. Member nations called on FAO to develop guidance on new innovations, technologies and data sharing approaches for further strengthening member countries that could further support and accelerate climate resilience, including advanced agro-metological advisory system instruments for small-holders urban agriculture production systems. Ensure the engagement of wide range of stakeholders in this effort, including private sector, public sector and community sector. The scaling of inclusive digitization in agriculture value chain, item number 17, the need for innovation including digital solutions in promoting productivity, resilience and supporting food security and sovereignty has been emphasized by most of the participants. In particular that extinguished delegates have recognized the opportunity that digitalization potentially opposed to family farmers, women, youth, indigenous groups and other vulnerable actors in the agro-food value chains. The critical need to provide appropriate and inclusive technologies to small farmers and family farmers in the region. This goes hand in hand with building and further developing local innovations, digital ecosystems, including through the provision of support local startups and provide digital solutions to their forming communities to access markets, finance and tailored information to help them make better distance to make, manage their crops and product environment. Member nations called on FEO to continue supporting inclusive digitization, providing guidance to member states on the matter and building institutional capacity in the region. Support women resources development along the agro-food chains and identify framework and modalities for strengthening the cooperation at regional and global level in accordance with the provide sector civil society. Member nations called on FEO to continue supporting sustainable digitalization for all, including through their 1000 digital place initiatives. Item 18, identifying one health priority in Asia and Pacific. Message and takeaways, we need one health capacity building programs and a regional initiative, even expand it to the ecology of the health ecosystems, agro-ecosystem. Member nations called on FEO to provide technical assistance to countries to strengthen one health policy and capacity. Naval development of national one health action plan in which mandates for priorities of all contributing ministries departments are included, established a one health capacity development program in the region. Work with countries, international financial institutions and regional organizations to develop policy and investment support for larger scale strengthening of the OS system. Item number 19, conserving, restoring and sustainably using biodiversity for food security and nutrition in the Pacific islands. Message and takeaways, emphasize the need for a more systemic coordinated approach among key sectors and stakeholders for sustainable management of biodiversity for food and agriculture in the Pacific region. Also highlighted that effective management of fisheries and eco-culture in the region through the blue transformation as this is particularly important for the region. Member nations called on FEO to promote the cohesive action on ministering biodiversity across agriculture sectors in Pacific region in alignment with relevant global and regional framework and initiatives. Insure regional cooperation including as regard the extent of jump last among countries is essential for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity for food security and nutrition in Asia and the Pacific. Finally item number 23, finally the senior officers meeting, deliberated the multi-year program of OEC MYPOW 2022 to 2025 for the FEO regional conference for Asia and the Pacific. And the senior officers meeting induced the MYPOW for 2022 to 2025 period to frame the work of the regional conference encouraged regular and systematic review of the performance and efficiency of the regional conference. Finally, I would like to thank all delegates on behalf of Nepal delegation for giving us this opportunity as a reporter and summarize the present the summary report in this valuable event. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. reporter for your nice and brief summary. Ladies and gentlemen and distinguished delegates, we are already few minutes late so without further delay. Now I declare that the agenda items 15 and 19 and 23 are concluded. Thank you all for your cooperation. I would like to now call Mr. Dharmapuri conference secretary to make an announcement. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Excellencies distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, we will now go into a break for a little less than two hours. So we will reconvene again at 2pm Dhaka time. So 2pm Dhaka time. Please take note of that in about an hour and 15 minutes from now and where we again have a full time table and we will move forward with the technical discussions of the day. Thank you all for joining and as we have said before, all the delegates on zoom are kindly requested to stay connected. And not to exit the call, leave the call on and please come back in about two hours time. So we will see you at 2pm Dhaka time again. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon everybody. Welcome everyone back to this afternoon session of the senior officers meeting of FBRC 36. Before the starting of the meeting, I would like to invite conference secretary Mr. Dharmapuri to make a couple of announcement. At least so far I know one is about the physical and virtual tour tomorrow morning and the other is about the drafting committee. So over to Mr. Dharmapuri. Thank you chair. Can you please put up the slide again? The slide of the side events please. Thank you to everyone in the plenary hall and on zoom for joining us again after lunch. So before we go further with the session this afternoon, a brief announcement as you see on the screen, we will have six actually it's more like many more side events tomorrow. So we will start in the morning. There will be a virtual field trip for all those who wish to follow it on zoom. And there is a physical field trip which the government of Bangladesh has kindly organized for those who are here. So please note these are two different field trips. One for those who are physically present and are able to go out and for those all of the rest who want to watch on zoom. There's a separate field trip as well. This will be followed by an event on the SIDS solutions forum that will be moderated and coordinated by the sub regional office in Samoa and they will be holding that event dedicated for the small island developing states. This will be followed at 1030 by the side event on the hand in hand initiative which as you all know is a flagship initiative of the organization and of the director general. We will then have a short break if time permits but then again at 12 which is officially the lunchtime but during the lunchtime we are going to have four side events. The first one on water scarcity. The second one on the international year of millets 2023. The third one on the United Nations decade of family farming. And then the fourth one on the international year of artisanal fisheries and aquaculture 2022. So these events will be conducted from the regional office in Bangkok. And these events will also feature many external speakers and also in some high level speakers such as ministers in some of them. So you can access all the side events with the same link that you are using right now for this session and what you used today. So please use the same link and join the side events. They are not parallel. They are sequential so they happen one after the other. So you have the choice to attend all of them some of them or I of course recommend that you attend all of them because they're all very interesting. And then at 2 p.m. we will start again the plenary session interpretation is available for the side events. So this is about what we'll do tomorrow before I hand it back to the chair. Please send in your nominations for the drafting committee by email to aprc36 at fao.org. Kindly send us an email of a person who will be the focal point for your delegation to receive the draft report later this evening. That will then the focal point can circulate within the country delegation. But please do send it to us so that we can send you the draft report and you have the chance to go through it and reflect upon it tomorrow morning before we meet in the afternoon for reported option. So aprc36 at fao.org. Thank you very much over to you. Thank you very much Mr. Dharmapuri. This afternoon let's come to the business again. We have three agenda items that is agenda item 20, 21 and 22. We'll hear and discuss on these items. The first item that is agenda item 20 is on regional results priorities, the four beta and the sustainable development goals. As in item 21 is on update on the development of the new FAO strategy on climate change and the final item of this day is item 22 update on the development of the FAO science and innovation strategy. This paper have been posted online with a video in the regional dialogue area with members comments on them. I invite members to read these comments online. I now invite Mr. Takayuki Hagiwara, FAO regional program leader for FAO at the regional office for Asia and the Pacific to present agenda item 20. Over to Mr. Takayuki Hagiwara. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Takayuki Hagiwara. I'm regional program leader for the regional office for Asia and the Pacific. Taking this opportunity, I would like to thank you for your written comment, which we will incorporate in our work. It is my honor to present the two APRC documents which I introduced to you in the record format during the country consultation. The first one on the major result of the FAO activities in the region and the second one on the priority for FAO in the region and the FAO strategy framework for 2022 and 31. Today, I would like to present the summary of these two papers and seek your guidance. The first, I would like to provide the context and the background of the last two current, last and the current two years. These two bienniums are very special, characterized by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current FAO director general arrived in August 2019 and he immediately undertook deep transformative actions to ensure that organization is fit for purpose. One of his key agendas was the efficient and effective delivery of work and he strongly promoted digitalization of the organization. When the pandemic caught the world with a big surprise, FAO was already moving toward the fully digital organization, which enhanced the use of information and communication technologies. Members and FAO faced a lot of implementation challenges during two years, but we jointly and quickly overcame the challenges and started adapting ourselves to a new working modality. In addition, FAO and the members started aligning the country-level planning with the UN Sustainable Development Corporation framework process. Finally, the region faced other major challenges, including the changes in Myanmar and Afghanistan. FAO continued working under the key principle of stay and deliver to remain present in this crisis and continued help rural people who suffered the most from the crisis. So, let me first provide you the summary of the paper on the major result of the FAO activity in the region. The previous four regional initiatives were adopted in APRC 35 for 2020 to 2021. The first one was on zero hunger. The second one was on the climate change and sustainable natural resource management and use. The third one was on one health and the transboundary animal and plant pest and diseases. The fourth one was on the assist Pacific component on food security, nutrition and climate resilience. These regional initiatives have the mechanism for delivery at the country-level facilitating greater impact of FAO work in the region. In order to deliver these regional initiatives, FAO in the region developed multi-disciplinary program initiative, we call it MPI. These MPI were led by teams composed of experts among different offices including headquarters and they were multi-disciplinary in nature. The regional office allocated both regular budget and the TCP while mobilizing extra budgetary resources mainly at the country level. Responding to the emerging issues, FAO in the region developed an additional MPI on the COVID-19 response. We also realized the importance of digitalization and we started develop the digital village initiatives. In addition, in order to mobilize the resources, we also included Jeff and the GCF and hand-in-hand initiative for pipeline development as a part of our MPIs. The result of the biennium were substantial and diverse and a lot. Hence, I would like to ask you to go to the report and see the level of the delivery of these two years which I would like to emphasize that the members and FAO jointly achieved so much despite so many challenges caused by the pandemic. Just to give you a bit of the flavor of our joint harvest, we quickly adapted to the local conditions significantly altered by the pandemic and over 500 projects were successfully implemented over two years while delivering a total of 294 million US dollars. In terms of the resource mobilization, 237 new trust fund projects were developed and we mobilized 313.6 million US dollars in the new extra budgetary resources which also includes global projects that are being implemented in the region. In addition, a total of 169 new TCP were prepared with a total value of 35.2 million US dollars. Over 100 projects delivered live saving emergencies, humanitarian valuing at 130.2 million US dollars. FAO also launched new cooperative strategy and initiatives which include hand-in-hand initiatives and COVID response and recovery program, 1,000 digital village initiative and one country one priority product, all of which will continue to be implemented during the 2023 and beyond. And today we would like to seek your guidance on the following four points on the first paper on the major result which are also listed in the paper. Let me move on to provide you a summary of the second paper on the priority for FAO in the region under the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-2023. FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 was endorsed in the 42nd session of the FAO conference. The guiding principle of the strategic framework is to support the agenda 2030 through transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food system for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind. And FAO will implement the strategic framework through 20 program priority areas which is PPA which articulate FAO's thematic, technical and comparative advantage to deliver. Based on the strategic framework, FAO in the region carried out a long process of developing the regional priorities. First we identify the key challenges according to each of the four betters. Then we also identify the opportunities that we have in the region. We also conducted the field program analysis according to the four betters and the PPAs. The region has more and a larger size project among PPAs in better environment followed by better production. Through the series of discussion analysis as well as considering our skill mix and experience in the region, trend and emergency issues, FAO in the region consulted with the government and came up with the following the proposed regional priorities. The first proposed regional priority is to transform agri-food system for sustainable production and healthy diet which covers better production and better nutrition. The second proposed regional priority aims to accelerate the sustainable natural resources management for biodiversity conservation and climate action which covers better environment. The third proposed regional priority is to support inclusive rural transformation for sustainable agri-food system and equitable rural societies. This covers all of four betters but especially a better life. Our fourth regional priority targets the Pacific small islands developing states, cities in our region and aims to build sustainable and resilient agri-food system. These four priorities will be achieved through our expertise as well as regular budget, TCP and mobilizing extra budgetary resources. We also have experts on cross-cutting themes such as gender, youth, inclusion as well as data and technology and innovation. These four regional priorities are not exclusive but inclusive. Each member has also its own priorities and specific needs. We will work closely with each member and develop a program under the umbrella of these regional priorities through a close consultation with the members. In addition, in order to bring about immediate result, we also have four cooperative initiatives which will be implemented through task forces. We will provide analysis, technical and policy advice and help resource mobilization as well as development of partnership with international and local institutions. FAO reps their teams and each one of our regional sub-regional and country offices are committed to achieve extraordinary results with each member during this coming biennium through implementing programs under the four betas. Each program will be linked to one of the PPA and we will be able to monitor our achievement. To work together as one team between FAO and the members, FAO in the region is requesting the members to endorse the following five points. And thank you for your continued proactive efforts to transform to efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food system for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and better life, leaving no one behind. And thank you for your kind attention. Thank you very much Mr. Hagiwara for your two presentations. This focuses on the strengthened partnership and the many FAO initiatives that will achieve inclusive, measurable and transformative changes. Well, the floor is now open to those delegations who wish to speak on the agenda item 20. I kindly request that interventions be no longer than three minutes so that all delegations have an equal opportunity to speak in the limited time table. The distinguished delegation of Malaysia has the floor now followed by the delegation of India, so over to Malaysian delegation. Thank you Mr. Chairperson. Malaysia welcomes the priorities under the FAO strategy framework 2022 until 2021 in Asia and Pacific region. Malaysia's national agri-food policy and AP year 2021 until 2030 emphasize three key policies principle, which is in line with the four regional priorities namely to develop a highly competitive and innovative agri-food sector to alleviate the well-being of food producers and inclusivity and the paradigm shift towards a sustainable food system. So Mr. Chairperson, Malaysia places significant importance of all four regional priorities. It is imperative that emphasis is given to fostering strategic partnership, creating holistic and conducive environments for the adoptions of agri-food system and promoting digitalization and mechanization. So on the original area of emphasis on the program priority area blue transformations, we proposed that its expansion into the development of fisheries management plan, especially for the tropical fisheries to complement the existing priorities areas on the development of the capacity of fisheries stock assessment. In addition to that, it is worth to include PPA one health into the regional priority area of emphasis focusing on specific capacity development in the prevention of zoonotic disease. Malaysia recognize the application of FAOs for cross sectoral accelerators in all its programmatic interventions including technology, innovation, data and complements. Malaysia encouraged FAO to ensure that the three cross-cutting claims of gender, youth and inclusion will be systematically mainstream across its programs based on regional and country level contacts. Having used as the cross-cutting team opens up the opportunity and platform for them to contribute and to be included in shaping the future of our food system. Malaysia fully supports the hand-in-hand initiative which aim at accelerating progress to end poverty, hunger and work towards agriculture transformations and sustainable rural development. Malaysia stresses the importance of data analytics and territorial approach to present evidence-based economic prospects and opportunities. Malaysia reiterates the catalytic importance of technical cooperation programs, PCP and other technical work of FAO to be designed according to countries' specific needs and customizations. Towards this end, Malaysia calls on FAO to intensify efforts here to reach out to countries in order to raise awareness and increase the uptake of the technical cooperation program facilities. Malaysia encouraged FAO to actively and continuously involve in the assessment and evaluation of each country's need to prescribe tailored policy framework and practical tools under the four regional priorities including the relevant programs by these areas. Through engagement and consultations at country level, we provide a richer input, increased country ownership on the outcomes of the implementation plan and improved accountability. Thank you. Thank you very much. Distinguished delegation of Malaysia. May I now invite the distinguished delegation of India for his intervention followed by the delegation of Bangladesh. Thank you, Mr. Chairperson. India appreciates the presentation we made by Mr. Takayuki on regional results, priorities for better than the SDGs. We appreciate inclusion of regional priority number three, supporting inclusive rural transformation for sustainable agri-food systems and equitable rural societies. FAO's commitment to promote inclusive rural transformation including economic growth and support to vulnerable populations to reduce inequality, leaving no country and no person behind is most important and relevant priority for the region. Prioritizing the digital agriculture is one of the most important areas of work for FAO and members in the region during the biennium is relevant and is expected to increase the efficiency and other areas. It is noted that this will build on ongoing work related to digital agriculture in the region. However, we would like to highlight that the issue of digital divide in the region. Some estimates point out that nearly 52% of the region's 4.3 billion people are not having access to digital innovations. There are fears that so-called digital divide could exacerbate inequalities and leave societies more vulnerable, especially small-holder farmers. The regional priority number three on inclusive rural transformation for sustainable agri-food systems and equitable rural societies should have clear results to strengthen the digital capacity of small-holders and their service providers and ensure all possible measures that reduces the digital divide and improve the access to all, especially the most vulnerable. Thank you, Mr. Chairperson. Over to you. Thank you very much, Distinguished Delegation of India. May I invite Distinguished Delegation of Bangladesh to take the floor, followed by Distinguished Delegation of Indonesia. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The four regional priorities proposed by FAO are pertinent and relevant for the region. The first three, in particular, resonate for Bangladesh with the priorities we have set for ourselves. Bangladesh has also developed a national pathway document for transformation of food systems for climate resilient, sustainable and nutrition-sensitive development to accelerate progress towards meeting the AIDS disease. Her Excellency, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, echoed the need for greater regional cooperation and knowledge sharing at both the UNFSS and COP26 last year. We look forward to FAO's support in taking forward the hand-in-hand initiative, one-country, one-priority product, and the Thousand Village Initiative as part of our agricultural sector transformation for prosperity. Transformation of food and agriculture system to respond to the new realities of meeting the ever-increasing demand for diversified, adequate, safe, nutritious and affordable food and diets have been and continue to be one of the key focus area. With rapid urbanization and first income growth, there are changing dietary patterns in Bangladesh. This has therefore led to greater scope for meeting the growing demand of higher value commodities. The hand-in-hand initiative has provided a robust framework using a market-based agri-food systems lens and a territorial approach to identify areas where agri-food systems transformation can be a driver of accelerated progress towards AIDS disease 1, 2 and 10 with the country. Jackfruit is the national fruit of Bangladesh. It has nutritional value being it is in protein, micronutrients and antioxidants and can be a source of both livelihood and nutritional security. Several products can be developed from it. Currently, however, there is not much of jackfruit processing in the country. We look forward to FAO's support under the One Country One Priority Product initiative to develop the commercial value chain of jackfruit and in the process ensure livelihood and nutritional security of small farmers and women attract young entrepreneurs into agro-processing and develop both the domestic and export market. The digital village initiative will enable timely and need-based information with our farmers and entrepreneurs and also improve market efficiency. We are already working closely with FAO Bangladesh under the hand-in-hand initiative. We see the need for a coordination and innovation hub that will serve as a nodal point of correlation and dissemination of best practices from the region, develop partnership, engaging with the private sector and other stakeholders and promote greater cooperation and collaboration. Taking forward the national pathway to commitments under the UNFSS also called for SASEHA. We endorse the priorities set by FAO for the region and look forward to your support in transformation of our agri-food systems to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Distinguished delegation of Bangladesh. May I again kindly request all the delegates that the interventions will not more than three minutes so that all are have the equal opportunity to speak in the limited time frame. So, may I now invite the Distinguished delegation of Indonesia to take the floor, followed by Distinguished delegation of the Philippines. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, since this is the first time for Indonesia to take the floor in this session, we would like to congratulate you on your appointment as the chairperson of the senior official meeting of the 26th session of the APRC and highly appreciate the government of Bangladesh for hosting and organizing this session. Indonesia welcome the positive progress of FAO's works in the region, particularly the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in supporting member countries to address challenges and meeting the SDGs targets, particularly SDG1 and SDG2. In line with the FAO new initiatives, Indonesia also views that digital innovation and science in agriculture is essential in enabling member countries to create more inclusive and sustainable agriculture and food systems. In our view, capacity building and investment to build and develop infrastructures are prerequisites so as to enable countries to utilize innovative technology that is suitable with their respective needs. Likewise, inclusive rural finance and agricultural insurance would be very important as well as we constantly facing the impact of global climate change. We hope that FAO could continue to support realizing concrete deliveries, deliverables within the region and each of its member countries including the COVID-19 response and recovery program and other FAO programs and the hand-in-hand initiative. In this context, we particularly appreciate FAO support to Indonesia through global or regional and country assistance projects including the One Health, the food systems and promotion of sustainable management and use of natural resources towards food systems transformation and achieving the SDGs. We support FAO statement on the report on the important roles of partnerships with the private sector and other development stakeholders to develop innovations and technologies in realizing inclusive, measurable and transformative change. We also encourage existing teamwork of FAO together with EFAT and WFP to continue to develop a more systematic UN-Rome-based agencies approach to maximize impacts and support countries in achieving food security in a more inclusive and sustainable manner. In this regard, we would like to emphasize that Indonesia is ready to expand its partnerships and share our experiences including through the framework of South-South and triangular cooperation as well as the occasion of our G20 presidency for the agricultural working group this year. With these statements, Indonesia endorses FAO's regional priorities 2022-2023 in the context of FAO's strategic framework 2022-2031. Thank you, Mr Chair. Thank you, distinguished delegation of the Philippines of Indonesia. May I now invite the distinguished delegation of the Philippines followed by Thailand. Good afternoon, Mr Chairman, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. It is a pleasure for me to present this statement on behalf of the Philippine government. All of us gathered here today are witnesses to how the global pandemic triggered an economic disruption that changed the world. Despite the challenges we encountered, we were able to embark on our respective country initiatives to help our people experience the four betters, better products for our farmers and fisherfolk, better nutrition, better environment and a better life for everyone. The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on Philippine agriculture in 2020 as we faced other massive stresses such as volcanic eruptions, typhoons, infectious animal diseases like the ASF and crop pest infestation. But it was also in the same year when our agricultural sector rose to the occasion and kept our economy afloat with a steady and affordable food supply for the population amid what is possibly the worst economic crisis since the recession of 2007 to 2008. In 2021, the Philippine Department of Agriculture launched the one-day reform programme with 18 key strategies to drive the agriculture and fisheries sector of the country towards inclusive growth, post-wing and accelerated transformation of the sector into a modern and industrial world. Aside from this, the Philippines hosted the National Food Systems Dialogue and the results served as the basis for the National Food Systems Transformation pathway. Both initiatives of the Philippine government are supportive of the ambition and effort of the United Nations Food Systems Summit to launch bold new actions and solutions, leveraging healthier, more sustainable and more equitable food systems towards the attainment of the 17 sustainable development goals. Guided by the one-day reform agenda and with the National Food Systems Transformation pathway in mind, we have moved forward on developing policies and programmes that are aligned with the FAO's Asia Pacific Regional Priorities. However, to advance these programmes, we need support in creating more public and private partnerships and in putting in place better capacities to leverage future investments for sustainable agri-food systems with large-scale implications on decreasing and eliminating poverty and hunger. We recognise that this conference plays a central role in gathering member countries in a venue for sharing experiences, best practices and strategic use in ensuring a stronger, more sustainable global food system in the aftermath of the pandemic. These exchanges can help inspire and facilitate collaboration among member countries in the region to uphold a collective response that is science-based, inclusive and innovative with the support of FAO headquarters, regional and country offices. The FAO's Asia Pacific Regional Priorities identified in 2023 should be able to help us address our key issues and challenges in the region. We will also explore opportunities for the Philippines through the new corporate aid strategies such as the one-country one-product and one-digital villages initiatives. We thank FAO for this and look forward to working with FAO and other member countries to accelerate the achievement of our shared objectives. Thank you very much, Mr Chair. Thank you very much. Distinguished delegation from the Philippines. May I now invite distinguished delegation of the Thailand to take the floor, followed by the delegation of China. Thank you very much, Mr Chairpersons. I am delighted to speak on behalf of the Euro-Tai government at the APRC. Thailand appreciates the outcome of the FAO work in the region during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic during the last biennium. And also we recognize that the Hanning Head Initiative and the one-country one-perity product initiative and also 1000-digital village made considerable advancement and also developed working partnerships and knowledge sharing platform among members in the region. We would like also to thank FAO Regional Office for its assistance and support during the national dialogue in preparation of the UN Food Systems Summit. And we are expecting that the outcome of the implementation and actions following the UN Food Systems Summit will build better and impacts in transforming sustainable agri-food system. During the past years, socio-economic impact of trans-boundary animal diseases and pests in Asia and the Pacific are represented are major threats for food security and livestock sector development. Decadence and loss of biodiversity, soy, water and marine resources are also continuing at the unprecedented rate and treatment. A range of human activities. The FAO strategic framework with the four betters and the four regional priorities presented by Mr. Thakar Yuki provide a clear focus directions and guidance in building healthy, sustainable, resilient and equitable agri-food system at the national and regional level. Thailand would like to underlie that the 20 PPA and the four regional priorities proposed for the next biennium align with the Thailand's national agriculture and cooperative strategies in several aspects. First, Thailand has recently adopted the bio-circular green economy model to increase sustainability and resilience of its agri-food system and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and food loss and waste. Second, the three S policy namely safety, securities and sustainability is being implemented by key stakeholders around agri-food systems in the country to transform our agri-food system through adoption of the BCT economy model and also the efficiency economy philosophy and ensure sustainable use of natural resources, soy, water, biodiversity and marine resources. Last, Thailand is committed to become greener kitchen of the world and to continue producing food and agricultural products with greater responsibilities for our planetary boundary. We meet here at the APRC every two years. After the meeting, we need to continue accelerating our action minimizing outcome on the ground at the country level. We need to use and strengthen the existing mechanisms of the regional commissions such as the animal production and health commissions, AFCA or Asia Pacific, fishery, forestry and plant protections commissions. These regional bodies and platform may contribute to build better link, better connections and better collaboration between FAO and technical agencies and department of the members because we want to narrow the gap between FAO and the technical agencies at the country level. Thailand committed to build better collaboration with FAO and share our expertise, our experience and lesser learn with other members. Finally, with our solidalities and mutual interest, we together will build better agri-food system for our people in the regions and our planet. With these comments, Thailand endorsed the four regional priorities identified by NM. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Distinguished delegation of the Thailand. Distinguished delegates, may I humbly again kindly request that the intervention should be no longer than three minutes. Now may I invite the distinguished delegation of China followed by Japan. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Distinguished delegation of China. May I now invite the distinguished delegation of the Japan for his deliberation, followed by the distinguished delegation of the New Zealand. Thank you very much, Chair. Japan supports regional priorities for Asian-Pacific presented by secretariat. In this occasion, I would like to comment on four issues. The role of FAO in promoting digital technology for food and agriculture, sustainable facilities in one health approach and sustainable forestry. First, we will try to improve the productivity in agri-food system and efficiency of the supply chains. Innovation, digitalization and neutralization of science and technology will be the key to break through the current difficulties and bring transformative changes for the future. So for promoting digital agriculture, Japan has a high expectation for the role of the international platform for digital food and agriculture established by FAO. Japan is willing to actively involved in this platform activities. In order to realize sustainable food system, Japan is promoting transformation into more effective resource management, sustainable agriculture production system that does not rely on natural resources too much and marked distribution system that prevent illegally harvested aquatic animals and plants from distribution. We expect FAO to continue to make wide-ranging efforts towards sustainable use of fishery resources and sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture. In collaboration with SIDS, Japan has been engaged in international cooperation such as accepting trainees and providing technical guidance through Japanese exports in order to promote the sustainable fisheries industry in the PICs. Based on the concept of the one health, Japan has been tackling to prevent two noses to promote action against AMR and to strengthen diagnosis capacities in the performance of veterinary services in the Asian Pacific region. We are looking forward to continuous activities through a cross-courver collaboration with WHO and OIE without duplication of works among these organizations. As the international demand for sustainable food products is increasing, Japan has taken many actions with ITTO which leads sustainable food for sustainable world, SW4SW initiatives in cooperation with FAO. In Asia, ITTO launched the first project to promote sustainable use of food in Vietnam funded by Japan and we intend to promote similar projects in other Asian countries. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Distinguished delegation of Japan. Now the distinguished delegation of New Zealand has the flow followed by Papua New Guinea. Thank you chair. New Zealand welcomes that FAO is seeking more guidance on regional priorities. FAO has increased focus on an engagement with SIDS as evidenced by many of the initiatives highlighted in this paper. In particular we note the positive regional engagement of Pacific island countries in the SIDS solution forum and its platform and New Zealand is looking to engage more actively in this initiative. We would be interested in understanding more on the one country, one priority product initiative to understand its value addition to regional priorities. We note the pilot programme proposed by the Solomon Islands and we're following that closely. Like many other delegations here, New Zealand also would like to endorse the four regional priorities identified for the 2022-23 biennium and chair just a few specific comments on the priorities across the four betas. We'd like to make firstly in relation to support for the development of national pathways and regional partnerships towards more productive and sustainable agri-food systems. New Zealand would be interested to understand how the new coordination hub can support the Pacific transformation pathway. In terms of development of capacity and fishery stock assessment for management and monitoring of the sustainable development goal number 14, addressing overfishing and RUU. Any support must be closely coordinated with regional agencies such as the FFA and SPC given the significant work already underway on these topics. Climate change mitigating and adapted agri-food systems. We welcome this area of focus given regional priorities and New Zealand's own programmes in the region. Our focus is to ensure synergy and not duplication in support. And lastly chair in relation to the hand-in-hand initiative. We note that Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu are working towards the use of the flagship geospatial platform and partnership modality. We continue to monitor progress of the hand-in-hand initiative in the Pacific region. Thank you. Thank you distinguished delegation of New Zealand. May I now invite distinguished delegation of Papua New Guinea for its deliberation followed by distinguished delegation of Samoa. Distinguished delegation of Papua New Guinea, you may please unmute yourself and then speak. Okay, we can now give the floor to the distinguished delegation of Samoa. Then we'll come back to again Papua New Guinea. Distinguished delegation of Samoa, the floor is yours. At the outset, Mr Chairman, Samoa congratulates the government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh for hosting the 36th session of the FAO regional conference for Asia and the Pacific. Mr Chairman, Samoa's continued dependence on imported processed foods, rising burden of non-communicable diseases, vulnerability to climate change, immediate threats of the potential incursion of pests and diseases such as the African swine fever, the four army war and the one part type of the coconut rhinosus beetle and in current limitations of our small island economy, post challenges in ensuring sustainable agri-food systems that can cater for our people. The COVID-19 mitigation has actually amplified many of these challenges resulting in further reduction in our food and income securities due to financial pressures and the regular disruptions in the food supply chains. Mr Chairman, with the support from the FAO and other UN agencies such as the UNRC and IFAD, Samoa has completed the formulation of its national food systems pathway 2030 comprising of 14 pathway actions which paved the way to transform our agri-food systems for a resilient and healthy Samoa and also help us achieve the 2030 agenda. Samoa therefore welcomes and supports the fourth regional priority namely building sustainable and resilient agri-food systems in the Pacific small island development states. Mr Chairman, let me also take this opportunity to acknowledge with much appreciation FAO's assistance and its MBI on COVID-19 response and recovery for Samoa which has helped improve and increase production through sustainable agricultural production practices. It has enhanced our capacities in poultry production and management practices and beekeeping for honey production and also it has helped improve access to markets for our small-holder farmers through market access trainings. Thank you Mr Chairman for the opportunity to speak. Thank you very much distinguished delegation of Samoa. Me and I invite again the distinguished delegation of Papua New Guinea. The floor is yours. Thank you Chairperson, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. We in Papua New Guinea we like to endorse the four FAO four regional priority areas for as presented. We are appreciative and thankful for FAO support in Papua New Guinea and our country program that has been run. FAO TNG, Papua New Guinea also endorses and supports the FAO strategic framework 2022-23 and the four betas and the 20 program priority areas that is contained within. Papua New Guinea is appreciative of FAO's support to the country program. We have an EU-straight program that has been implemented looking at cocoa and manila and fish production and productivity and the appreciation of the FAO support in the digital village initiative which has been implemented. There is a wide gap between the rural and the urban. The digital technology literacy level is quite wide and low in Papua New Guinea so in the use of digital technology and power of people to embrace digitalization of agriculture. Papua New Guinea we also are appreciative of the one health program in Papua New Guinea where it has been implemented over the couple of years now. We have frequent swine fever in the country and also a full army worm in the country where the money is in and the control measures have been put to help alleviate or reduce African swine peak production and pork consumption in the country is very important in terms of culture. It is important that we need to strengthen our health issues so one health program advance our food security situation as well as achieving our SG21 and SG22. Papua New Guinea also have a food systems program initiated under the global food system summit last year so we will be looking towards pastracking and developing our transformation of our food system in the country where we would look at vulnerable and critical areas where malnutrition is high and wasting is high because of the remoteness and consumption of an unbalanced diet by the people so this is one area that we need to strengthen another food systems program into the future labor mobility is an issue for Papua New Guinea and other food systems where young people today are not taking up agriculture as expected so this is one area we need to work very hard for Papua New Guinea where the young people can take up agriculture in a serious way as compared to our forefathers where agriculture was a means of food production and culture commodity production at their peak so this is one area where we need to look at for strengthening our food system that includes productivity and production aspects of our food systems in the country where research and development plays a critical role in enhancing our production and productivity in the country we definitely train and really streaming is quite important for Papua New Guinea where we have an EFAP project where it is looking at where we need to strengthen market access where people to strengthen their food security system as well as their self-sufficiency and market access so with that chairperson I would like to make maybe a comment there needs to be some more awareness for Papua New Guinea some of the program priority areas example one country one in which Papua New Guinea has some relationship with other countries hand-in-hand initiative this is one area where as our previous speaker from New Zealand as a hundred two thank you very much just increased delegation of Papua New Guinea could not hear a few words from you so appreciate if you can upload your comments to the email of the aprc so now you'd like to go back to the civil society organizations I see no request from the civil society and the private organization so I would like to now request Mr. Hagiwara to respond to the question raised by the distinguished delegates on this and item 20 Mr. Hagiwara yes excellencies and thank you very much for your great comments that we received there are lots of the comments are very relevant for our future implementation of the work and that we will sorry mr. Hagiwara may I interrupt you mr. Hagiwara yes for the interruptions if we got one request from the civil society organizations asiadra so I'd request civil society organizations the distinguished representative of the civil society organization thank you mr. chair thank you for the opportunity to give an intervention on the FAO priorities in the region guided by the FAO strategic framework 2022-2031 that strongly supports the achievement of the sustainable development agenda 2030 I am Marlene Ramirez secretary general of the Asian partnership for the development of human resources in rural areas or asiadra the four regional priorities and the program priority areas and accelerators and cross cutting themes provide a comprehensive view of the outcomes that we all hope to achieve in the next 10 years as a regional network of rural development NGOs in Asia we are able to connect to a number of our own priorities so we are encouraged to pursue partnerships not only at the policy level but I think more importantly in the actualization of these priorities at the national level through our partner rural development and rural peoples organizations it is important for us that global and regional dialogues and meetings such as days through down to concrete participation and benefits for partner grassroots organization at the local level just like FAO many of us in the CSO community are fully convinced on the importance of the SGGs as common reference in our work Asia just own strategic plan in the next five years carry the lens of the SGGs and the past four years we have invested in building understanding on the SGGs vis-a-vis our work for rural development and poverty eradication and in developing strategic partnerships to align the work that we do at the local national levels with various stakeholders for greater results as a partner of FAO we tried to contribute in achieving shared agenda at different levels for examples at the local level invest in the animating the global action plan of the united decade or family farming we keep track of the progress of our work on this as a member of the CSO world coordination committee of the UNDFF at the world committee for food security of CFS we work with FAO in rolling out one of the important CFS policy instrument the responsible agriculture investment and regionally we support as convener of the CSO ad hoc committee for the FAO APRC and the CSO consultation in the in conjunction with APRC some of our ongoing actions at the regional national levels respond to the three regional priorities and also contributes to achieving the four better targets a few examples would be providing financing and advisory services to small scale farmers organization in Southeast Asia which respond to better productivity with all farmers organizations empowered in the full budget chain capacity development in the CFS and the asian guidelines on responsible agriculture investment with particular focus on women and youth we also embark on case documentation on responsible agriculture and youth and gender including adropecive for a magna carte for young farmers in the philippines we also support the drafting of the asian rural development master plan to elevate rural development as an important pillar in building resiliency in the region with integrated territorial rural and agricultural development as core implementation approach and a study towards the potentials of piloting the digital village initiatives in at least four countries in asian with farmers organizations and cooperatives as entry point with FAO we hope to make agriculture digitalization work for small scale farmers and fissures organization so finally from our experience there are many opportunities for cooperation and convergence with FAO and member states but there are also many constraints but we believe that if we can all commit to pursue gender cooperation gen gen win partnerships across sectors and amidst our diversity we could surpass these obstacles so along these we specifically propose to FAO to invest in sustaining and regularizing broad CSO FAO government consultation processes at the national level to help track implementation of aprc resolutions to contribute to FAO programming at the national level and optimize possible synergies for more sustainable actions thank you very much back to you sir thank you distinguished representative of asiadra now mr hagiora it is your time to respond thank you chair and thank you very much for the member countries as well as the civil civil societies and we are really appreciate the comment we received and we noted all the comments which which is a lot so we will incorporate your comments into our work and in order to achieve the regional priority we really need to work together with the members and through the country office regional office sub regional office and we will try our best to achieve the proposed regional priorities and thank you very much for your support and then we will definitely achieve the proposed the regional priority thank you very much and back to you mr chair thank you very much mr hagiora for your responses so does the item 20 is concluded i now ask the office of climate change to present item 21 update on the development of the new afa strategy on climate change may i request mr idwad domansu please thank you mr chairman i would like to confirm that you can hear me good afternoon for the participants of the aja pacifica regional conference my name is aduardo mansoor i'm the director of the office of climate change biodiversity and environment i'm speaking to you from the headquarters of afa in rome if the colleagues could help me with the powerpoint i will quickly introduce you the agenda item 21 which relates to the document aprc 20 to 10 update on the development of the new false strategy on climate change next please mr chairman distinguish participants next slide please the the next slide would show you that the new strategy of climate change is a contribution to the implementation of the afa strategic framework 2022 2031 and relates to the recommendations that came out from the conference of the party of the united nations framework convention on climate change from the un food systems and is based on the latest scientific evidence including the latest high pcc reports that call that recognize the unequivocal human influence on climate change and call for most urgent actions all these efforts in this slide contribute to the achievement of the sustainable development goes the agenda 2030 and particularly in our case on the sdg on the afa o contribution to the sdg 13 the sdg on climate action afa o carried out in 2019 an evaluation of the the afa o contribution to the sdg 13 and the conclusion was that we need to have a new strategy to upscale to enhance the ambition and the actions towards involving agri food systems in the solutions to the climate crisis next slide please this is this strategy is done in close coordination with other similar regulations and instruments in afa o like the the sdg on the private sector the false strategy on mainstreaming biodiversity and the foul strategy on nutrition and the foul corporate strategy on climate on environment and of course it's being developed in tandem with the new the the foul strategy on science and innovation next slide please we are during this month of march and until may carrying out consultations to the regional conference and to the regional groups to obtain elements for finalizing the draft of the strategy that will be submitted to the program committee and the council for hopefully for approval in the next afa o council in june here in rome here in rome so this is the timeline as from the start of the evaluation i mentioned to you to hopefully the approval and then the development of the action plan next please the strategy is formed by these five sessions that you can see here it has a brief executive summary it's going to be a short document not more than 20 21 pages focus on the climate change the the threat that climate change represents for agri food systems the scope of the strategy the the pillars for enhanced action and basically is divided in three main pillars one at global and regional action one at country action and one at local action and then measures for implementing and monitoring the implementation next slide please the strategy is based on this ten guiding principles focusing on the agri food systems approach having people at the center of its action promoting good practices and innovations based on science and evidence having country-driven climate actions delivering through partnerships particularly through south south and triangular cooperation i have to inform this audience mr chairman that yesterday the regional group of asia had the chance to discuss here in rome the first draft the zero draft of the strategy and the point of south south and triangular cooperation has been one of the points in very much motivated and enhanced by the members of the regional asian group here in rome we we also focus on mainstream engender equality youth engagement and we oh let me go back yes please thank you in the inclusive multistakeholder approaches in the scaling up the investments through vertical fronts to bilateral funds to increase action and adopt a known one-size-fits-all approach next please this this diagram shows more or less the theory of change and i would like just to show you the process of thinking that has been done from the underlying causes and the challenge to the type of support that falcon produced and then the pillars the global regional country and local levels under which there are two outcomes based on the outcomes there will be action areas that will guide our action plan for the implementation of the strategy one once it's approved you can see here also the impact and the vision that is also available at the document that you have in your hands from the documents available for the conference next slide please i would conclude mr chairman telling you what's new comparing to the strategy that we had produced in 2017 not long ago this particular new strategy aims to raise the ambition and to better align with the agenda 2030 to promote interlinked challenge not only on climate the climate biodiversity desertification ecosystem degradation the renewable energy all the different aspects that contribute together it is also contributing to the implementation of the latest international plans and initiatives such as the methane pledge and the forest pledge that has been done at co-op 26 in Glasgow last year it addresses holistically the different aspects of agri-food systems crops livestock forest fisheries aquaculture and its value chains including livelihoods and ecosystems it builds on potential to combine adaptation and mitigation the agri-food sectors are probably the most efficient and cost-effective options to address climate change combining adaptation mitigation is also one of the characteristics of our sectors that we would like to explore further with implementation of this strategy scaling up financing investment is essential as you know FAO is an implementing agency of the green climate fund of the global environmental facility and of the adaptation fund these are vertical funds but not only those other opportunities also to scale investment including from private public partnerships and the involvement of private sector the role of our carbon markets should be explored of course science and innovation is the basis of the FAO work it's not different in this strategy the the strategy also explores new avenues on bioeconomy in circularity to promote sustainable agri-food systems and build on multi-stake holders partnerships and FAO comparative advantage next please with this i would like to thank you mr chairman and i'll be happy to address the questions of this honorable audience thank you thank you very much mr. Duhada Mansur now the floor is open to those delegations who wish to speak on the asian diet in 21 i kindly request that interventions be no longer than three minutes so that all the delegations have an equal opportunity to speak in the limited time available the distinguished delegation of malaysia has the floor first followed by the distinct delegation distinguished delegation of australia distinguish delegation of malaysia close it yours we do all right okay thank you mr chair person malaysia welcomes the nine guiding principle described in the new strategy outline particularly with regards to the guiding principle one take an agri-food systems approach that is in a line with one of the three key policy principles under malaysian national agri-food policy 2021 until 2030 a paradigm shift towards a sustainable food system adapted to a climate change for a sustainable farming and food system malaysia recognized that in order to address climate change a comprehensive shift towards modernization and innovation is imperative in this regard we are pleased to see that evo embraces innovations in guiding principle three as the promotion of innovation is essential for sustainable agri-food transformations and highlighting concrete example and best practices of relevant innovative solutions tailored to context specified focusing on climate smart agriculture smart calming or precision agriculture would have far-reaching benefits to member states in the advancement of agri-food transformations malaysia national agri-food policy 2021 2030 and national food security policy action 2021 until 2025 also outline the strategy to advance towards sustainable agricultural practices and food system which also mirror efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change on the food system under the new FEO strategy on climate change firstly by driving greater adoptions of sustainable farming practices with utilization of bio-resources across the food production value chain particularly on farmlands for the purpose of improving food safety and reducing environmental pollution secondly promoting conservation and preservation of biodiversity and natural resources for sustainable agriculture would maintain the benefits of biodiversity provided to humanity including food security nutrition and livelihood malaysia highlights the importance of ensuring that under second strategic pillar country level scale up climate actions on the on the ground is reflective of the diverse needs and realities of regional and country's priorities and circumstances so the strategies implementation can be tailored to national circumstances malaysia reiterates that FEO must be cautious in prescribing the most suitable implementation plan to be integrated into the national framework at country level in order to avoid the one size fits all approach finally malaysia is in the opinion that the new FEO strategy and climate change must complement the agriculture system transformations and enable members tape to accelerate the responses to the climate crisis by having feasible actions and implementation plans to achieve a great good system transformation and towards the sustainable development goals thank you back to you mr chair thank you distinguished delegation of malaysia the distinguished delegation of australia the floor is yours followed by the distinguished delegation of japa distinguished delegation of australia we can't hear you probably can unmute yourself and try again apologies chair can you hear me now please proceed thank you chair and good evening distinguished delegates australia welcomes the update on the new FEO strategy on climate change and we express express our appreciation for the inclusive and transparent consultation process that has characterized the development of this strategy to date we highlight the importance of ongoing consultation in particular with members who are who are unable to engage through traditional channels in rome we also emphasize the importance of the FEO addressing this issue in line with its mandate and not engaging in substantive debate on matters which are more appropriately addressed in expert climate change fora australia supports the recommendation of the 132nd program committee which was welcomed by the 168th council that the strategy should consider the diverse contexts specificities priorities and capacities across regions countries and at the local level in this regard we request further information preferably in writing on how the unique challenges facing asia and the pacific will be acknowledged within the strategy particularly the proposed concrete action plans that intended for implementation at country level as foreshadowed under point 16 k australia also supports the 132nd program committee's recommendation that the strategy include reference to utilizing and building on lessons learned in climate mitigation and adaptation in agriculture and food systems we consider including options to collate and reflect on future lessons will ensure leverage of FAO's comparative advantage in this area and avoid duplication while addressing and responding to climate challenges in line with FAO's mandate in closing we reiterate the importance of the FAO the UNFCCC and other relevant organizations continuing to closely collaborate on the agriculture food security and climate nexus in line with the outcomes of COP26 this will ensure the FAO strategy on climate change contains the most up-to-date science and evidence-based approaches to tackling climate change thank you chair thank you distinguished delegation of Australia may i now invite the distinguished delegation of Japan for his intervention please followed by the distinguished delegation of Nepal thank you chair to ensure food security it will be the key to build a climate resilient agriculture food system it is important to enhance both productivity potential and sustainability by conducting adaptation and mitigating mitigation activities on climate change in a proper manner it is quite important to mainstream climate change to national food and agricultural policies which is described in the outline of the new strategy Japan launched the strategy for sustainable food system mid-May which aims to enhance productivity potential and ensure sustainability in agriculture forestry fisheries and food sectors based on this strategy we are promoting various variety of actions on climate change such as achieving zero CO2 emissions from the agriculture forestry fisheries sectors realizing long-term and massive storage of carbon in forests and wood property and ocean sun and so on in addition Japan is working on climate change adaptation including dissemination of forest conservation and neutralization for improving regional resilience in main in mountainous watersheds by strengthening and function of forest to prevent and mitigate impacts of disaster also japan has been implementing capacity building on agriculture soil carbon sequestration in developing countries in addition in japan would like to emphasize that there's no one-size-fits solution as stated by moracia and FAO should fully consider different circumstances in each country when developing the new strategy from this perspective we support the part of 28 put farmers fishers foresters pastoralists and vulnerable people at the center it is important to take approaches based on different circumstances each country also innovation is important for the transition towards sustainable food system so from this perspective we support the part of 28 also embrace innovation is a one of the key concept FAO should develop a new strategy taking into account members comments as much as possible thank you chair thank you very much distinguished delegation from uh japan may i now invite distinguished delegation of nipal for his intervention followed by distinguished delegation of Bangladesh honorable chair person uh nipal lies in the upstream himalaya uh and uh better than uh uh uh quietly uh changes from the right to himalaya its uh the attitude ranges from 60 meter to 848 meter so the effect of the climate change in nipal is uh quite high compared to other countries and the most the impact are on the small holders and the hill farming because of this the defarming in the hill has been increased in the in the days and also it has impacted the livelihood of the small load of farmers so particularly we need to internalize and also it also impact has impact on the downstream countries so the effect of the climate change need to be well internalized uh in case of the uh developing country thank you thank you very much uh distinguished delegation of nipal uh now the distinguished delegation of Bangladesh the flow is yours followed by distinguished delegation of china thank you mr chair distinguished delegates Bangladesh appreciates the development of FAO's new climate change strategy building on the outcomes from cop 26 as well as the food system summit Bangladesh is among the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change whose pauses a long-term trade to our country's agricultural sector particularly in areas affected by flooding saline inclusion and drought today's food system is fragile getting the food system right is central to a resilient recovery plan for the pandemic uh FAO strategy on climate change will go beyond business as usual options addressing the root causes of climate change and opening new pathways paved with green and climate resilient solutions we really expect to go beyond business as usual and to address the root cause not repeating the things that are being done by others we need to concentrate on sustainable growth as well as finding finding ways to increase productivity without adversely impacting the environment and adopting climate smart strategies to develop the climate resilient food systems we believe that rba coordination have as part of the food system summit follow-up will assist the member states in this regard according to their local need and context having said this Bangladesh would like to highlight on the following three points first main concern should be given on adaptation rather mitigation second Bangladesh being the chair of the 55 nation climate vulnerable forum and hosting climate finance summit in the country few months before would like to emphasize FAO management to be creative in identifying financing mechanism and innovative partnership to address climate challenge in the context of the transformative agri-food system and third our apex research institution BRRI has carried research on greenhouse gas and bought significant new knowledge on GAG emission from rice cultivation the result has been published in the international high impact general factor journal the result shows that rice cultivation absorbs about 2200 gram carbon dioxide equivalent from atmosphere and emit about 2122 gram of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas for one kg rice production therefore rice cultivation does not pollute rather it cleans the atmosphere this result has been peer reviewed while published we ask FAO to convene a conference of experts across the region to further examine evidence on this aspect and contribute to the body of knowledge and also to global environmental and climate negotiations thank you mr chair thank you distinguished delegation of Bangladesh i would like to now invite distinguished delegation of china for its deliberation followed by distinguished delegation of Thailand monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga monga thank you very much mr chair person thailand support the draft new strategies on climate change and appreciate the ongoing consultation process with the members as mr mansoor mentioned earlier just yesterday we met with the representative of asia group in brome climate action is one of thailand national priorities and we realized that the adaptation and mitigation of climate change must be tailored on specific local conditions and capacities and capability available on the ground we support the proposed three pillars of actions of avail draft strategies on climate change and we would like to chair some views as follow first we emphasize the need to echo the important roles of agriculture's livestock and agriculture system in being part of the solution when enable to contribute to the reductions of biodiversity laws and to increase carbon stocks while at the same at the same time providing safe healthy and nutritious food second we need to scale up the implementation and police of the policy and actions on the ground especially those policy and action targeting small holders farmers and indigenous people who are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change in order to facilitate their access to finance services as well as knowledge and innovation third we need to stock take reassess and evaluate the existing climate mitigation and adaptation practices of the members and also other stakeholders to analyze and identify traits of in order to ensure a proper balance among the three pillars of sustainability we think that avail can play a key role in arranging the science-based knowledge sharing platform where members can exchange and learn good practices thailand is now transforming in agri food system to increase sustainability and adopted by also colloquial economy model to reduce greenhouse emissions and reduce the food loss and waste recently thailand consortium or livestock and aquaculture including government private sectors producers and academy aside the collaboration agreement on the reduction of greenhouse emission along this livestock and aquaculture supply change and finally we encourage FAO to take a leading role and to continue afford to more are in monitoring evaluating and communicating sustainable innovation innovative solution for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the agri food system for members to achieve their national commitment to achieve SDGs thank you very much thank you distinguished delegation of thailand now distinguished delegation of new zealand the floor is yours followed by distinguished delegation of samoa thank you chair and we fully support the development of the new strategy for climate change and this being a key guiding element of the FAO's program of work we've fed our specific comments into the program committee and we're broadly supportive of the proposed vision guiding principles theory of change and the pillars we welcome the inclusive approach to the consultations and i just want to take this opportunity to highlight to the southwest pacific regional group members that we have our consultation this friday 11th march at a time that is suitable for pacific delegations in new york so we would welcome as many participants as possible to feed in more detail our comments from the pacific region given how important climate change is to our region thank you chair thank you very much distinguished delegation of new zealand may i now invite distinguished delegation of samoa to take the floor followed by the distinguished delegation of india mr chairman samoa does not need to remind the conference of the disastrous impacts of climate change on the pacific sits especially the low-lying sits so samoa welcomes the update on the on the development of this new strategy for information of the conference as part of our mitigation efforts the forestry forestry division of our other ministry the ministry of equity of natural resources and environment have achieved the planting of two million trees and they plan in partnership with the our ministry of agriculture and fisheries to plant another one million trees but this time to mix it with full trees such as cocolants bread fruits and fruit trees as part of our food security and nutrition samoa would also like to register its appreciation to fao via its fao subregional office on on various projects to assist us to increase the pacific sits resilience to the impacts of climate change through the coronavia joint work on agriculture and also thank you to fao for the support to help samoa develop its equity cultural climate change policy thank you chairman for the opportunity thank you very much distinguished delegation of samoa may i now invite distinguished delegation of india for his interventions followed by distinguished delegation of cambodia thank you very much chair person we welcome the strategic pillar number three that is farm level built capacity through innovative package of solutions we appreciate that this pillar aims to accelerate fao's support in empowering particularly those who are most at risk from the changing climate in agri-food systems including small holder farmers and other most vulnerable population the farm level is not explicitly covering all the most at risk communities if relevant this may be changed to local level we would like to highlight that the titles of the outcomes are not consistent with the description above in the document for example the word decarmonization is confusing in the context of small holder farmer as the impacts of climate change and them are not are far more than their contribution to the climate change considering this we propose that the outcome be mirrored actors are reducing emissions from the agri-food systems through improved practices green and climate resilient pathways similarly the outcome see mirrored farmers and other at risk population receives support to adopt innovative and climate resilient practices thank you mr chair person over to you thank you very much distinguished delegation of india now the distinguished delegation of cambodia the floor is open for you thank you mr chairman in the item 21 cambodia would like to thank fao for always support the royal government of cambodia cambodia would like to confirm our support to the fao climate change strategy which is in line with the agriculture development