InterAction President and CEO Sam Worthington wrote this post on the second day of the FAO emergency food crisis summit in Rome.

FAO officials are seeking to improve the effectiveness of their organization, and hope constructive dialogue this week will lead to the implementation of new joint efforts with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). But you wouldn’t know that by the NGO welcome.

I wandered the maze-like building yesterday, looking for the main conference area before being told by police that NGOs don’t have full access. I saw no signs, no directions, no “Welcome…” It was a far cry from the red carpet welcome that heads of state received on the other side of the building.

There is a clear class system at UN summits. As the representative of the largest alliance of U.S.-based NGOs, I received a special pass that lets me into the conference area. Unfortunately, most of the hundred or so other NGOs here will make it no further than the institutional hallways.

Even so, it’s clear to me that the informal side meetings with representatives from civil society and FAO staff make this trip worthwhile.

In the NGO Forum at the conference, I was selected to make the first statement from the floor (see InterAction policy statement here). InterAction’s recommendations focus on the poor—the small farmer, and the subsistence farming family. They stress the role of nutrition in keeping children alive and the key role of women in feeding poor families.

Pragmatic action is needed, and the world needs to double its investment in agriculture. It’s important that the FAO reach out to a broader segment of civil society, including NGOs that are comfortable working with the UN, corporations, and governments. The good news is that FAO staff welcomed new ideas for practical advocacy and joint programs with NGOs.

You have to remain an optimist in this business, and I’m hopeful that some new efforts focused on the world’s poor will actually come out of this summit.

Sam Worthington is the President and CEO of InterAction, the largest coalition of U.S.-based international NGOs focused on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. More information about InterAction’s response to the food crisis can be found at: http://interaction.org/foodcrisis

This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 9:39 am and is filed under World Food Crisis, Sam Worthington, InterAction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.