The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN), representing the Arab civil society in the UN Committee on Food Security (CFS), and as coordinator of the Working Group on Food Insecurity in Crises and Conflicts has organized a series of meetings at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, on the ‘Agenda for Action for Addressing Food Insecurity and Nutrition in Protracted Crises’ currently negotiated among world countries prior to  endorsement in October, 2015.

APN opened the meetings held between 27-30, January, 2015 with a consultative workshop for the global civil society attended by representatives from Sudan, Iraq, Palestine, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Chad, Uganda, Kenya, Italy, Switzerland and the United States.APN president Razan Zuayter spoke about the organizations success in moving the issue of the food insecurity in crises and conflicts to the top priorities of the Committee on Food Security (CFS).

APN manager Mariam  Jaja also outlined a draft agenda for action which was followed by a discussion aimed at reaching recommendations that reflect peoples’ priorities in areas suffering from wars and occupations.

Later, Zuayter headed an open ended meeting on January, 29th which was attended by government representatives in FAO and international agencies delegates from Norway, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Hungary. Other delegates were from Sudan, Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Mauritania and from the USA and Latin American countries.Leading the meeting, Zuayter affirmed the need to adopt a legal framework in addressing food insecurity that should take into account root causes of conflicts and factors that prevent safe access to food and production resources.  Meanwhile,  Jaja underlined the need to link emergency aid to long term programs that do not lead to dependence on food programs as well as support local food production essential to sustainable economic and food security.The meeting was followed by two other bilateral ones with Arab and European representatives aimed to unify their views in the negotiations on the agenda for action. On December, 30th, APN coordinated participation of the Civil Society Working Group in the open-ended meeting of the CSF which had a great impact on its deliberations after encouraging allies from government of developing southern countries to join hands with the civil society against attempts by major powers such as the United States which tried to abort the negotiations on the agenda.