The meeting was opened by Fernando Chaparro, Chairman of the NARS Steering Committee
(NARS-SC) as well as of the Global Forum Steering Committee (GF-SC) who welcomed all
participants to the meeting.
In his introductory speech, Fernando mentioned that this second meeting was organized as an
open meeting to which were invited not only the Chairpersons of the 5 Regional Fora but also
the Chairpersons or Executive Secretaries of the sub-regional associations or organizations,
the regional representatives to the CGIAR and the representatives of the Facilitating
Agencies. 24 persons attended this meeting. He indicated that this policy on attendance could
be revised if the official members of the Steering Committee (the 5 Chairpersons of the
Regional Fora) wish to do so and would prefer to work in closed sessions. Fernando also
mentioned the four documents which were distributed for discussion during the meeting :
¿ GFAR Report of Activities : 1996 - 1997
¿ GFAR : Proposed Programme of Work 1998 - 2000
¿ Operationalization of the NARS-GSC Secretariat
¿ Establishment of a ¿Donor Support Group to the GFAR¿ (discussion paper)