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* Atleast Project Title is Required.
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Project No. |
ATC 02 2011A
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Project Title |
2011 APEC Food Security Forum - APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism
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Project Status |
Completed Project
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Publication (if any) |
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Fund Account |
APEC Support Fund
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Sub-fund |
ASF: General Fund
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Project Year |
2011
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Project Session |
Session 2
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APEC Funding |
79,959
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Co-funding Amount |
120,041
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Total Project Value |
200,000
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Sponsoring Forum |
Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group (ATCWG)
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Topics |
Agriculture
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Committee |
SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE)
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Other Fora Involved |
Not Applicable / Other
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Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved |
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Proposing Economy(ies) |
Chinese Taipei
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Co-Sponsoring Economies |
Brunei Darussalam; China; Philippines; Thailand
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Expected Start Date |
08/07/2011
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Expected Completion Date |
31/12/2012
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Project Proponent Name 1 |
Su-San CHANG
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Job Title 1 |
Director General
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Organization 1 |
Department of International Affairs, Council of Agriculture
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Postal Address 1 |
No.37, Nan-hai Rd., Taipei
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Telephone 1 |
886-2-2312-4004
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Fax 1 |
886-2-2312-3827
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Email 1 |
susan@mail.coa.gov.tw
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Project Proponent Name 2 |
Not Applicable
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Job Title 2 |
Not Applicable
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Organization 2 |
Not Applicable
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Postal Address 2 |
Not Applicable
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Telephone 2 |
Not Applicable
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Fax 2 |
Not Applicable
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Email 2 |
Not Applicable
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Declaration |
Not Applicable
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Project Summary |
The recent food price hikes that occurred in the second half of 2007, 2008 and the first quarter of 2011 were due to severe climate change, biofuel production, and high energy prices, coupled with rising demand from emerging economies. This has led to food insecurity and chaos in some parts of the world. The issue has been further compounded by intensive natural disasters induced by extreme weather conditions that have occurred frequently in recent years, and stricken food security in the APEC region.
In order to cope with such severe challenges and to explore feasible ways to meet emergency food needs in the APEC region in accordance with Paragraph 10 of the APEC Niigata Declaration on Food Security, Chinese Taipei would like to host the “2011 APEC Food Security Forum” in August 9-11, 2011. The Forum will: (1) discuss the impact of natural disasters on food security in the region; (2) share experiences and best practices among APEC member economies in the preparedness and responses to emergency food needs in times of natural calamities; and (3) deliberate feasible ways to establish a cooperative, cost-effective operation and management of APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism(AFERM). Besides, the needs and details of establishing an APEC food security information database covering statistics on food supply and demand, stocks, trade and prices will also be discussed.
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Relevance |
The recent food price hikes that occurred in the second half of 2007, 2008 and the first quarter of 2011 were due to severe climate change, biofuel production, and high energy prices, coupled with rising demand from emerging economies. This has led to food insecurity and chaos in some parts of the world. The issue has been further compounded by intensive natural disasters induced by extreme weather conditions that have occurred frequently in recent years, and stricken food security in the APEC region. The Asia-Pacific region is the most vulnerable and natural disaster risk prone region, which aggravates food insecurity. To cope with such severe challenges and to address emergency food needs in the APEC region in accordance with paragraph 10 of APEC Niigata Declaration on Food Security, Chinese Taipei proposes the establishment of a cost-effective and cooperative APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism (AFERM) based on the principles of voluntary commitment, self-managed, collective action and risk-sharing.
Furthermore, there are several reasons for APEC to consider establishing the APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism:
(1) First of all, food reserve/stock is the first defense line when food crisis erupts. However, cooperative reserve mechanism has not been addressed much by multilateral organizations. In addition, the existing regional food reserve scheme has not yet incorporated all APEC member economies.
(2) Secondly, the regional ASEAN-Plus-Three Emergency Rice Reserve scheme (APTERR) does not encompass other commonly consumed staple crops, such as wheat, corn, soybean, potatoes, and cassava.
(3) Thirdly, when calamities arise from extreme climate change or other natural disasters affecting food production, they often happen to occur within several proximate economies. If the scope of any emergency response mechanism was expanded to include both sides of the Pacific Ocean and both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, risk of a major food crisis would be effectively decreased. Since APEC members come from diverse areas that produce multiple staple crops, it will be more sensible for APEC to support the Mechanism.
(4) In APEC Food Security Forum 2010 the topic for the development of cooperative regional food emergency response mechanisms was raised and discussed without reaching any resolution. Nevertheless the 2010 forum recommended further discussion and study on the entailed details of the mechanism in reference to other similar operations. Therefore, Chinese Taipei takes the initiative to organize APEC Food Security Forum 2011 for further confer the topic and to mull over the possible establishment of the AFERM. To facilitate the deliberation at the 2011 forum, Chinese Taipei will present the prototype of the AFERM, involving humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and its suggested follow-up activities for refinement and recommendation to the SOM and Ministerial meetings.
The AFERM would be capable of reinforcing a sense of food security in times of unforeseen emergencies. In general, an emergency refers to a state or condition where a member economy that suffers from extreme or unexpected natural or person-induced calamities is unable to cope with such a state or condition through its own food stocks.
A recommendation for the formalization of AFERM is an expected output of this project. Should the AFERM be formalized, it will help the members, especially the developing members, to advance the capacity building and to safeguard food security, and also, will make them well-prepared to face the impacts of natural disasters and climate change on food security. This project will invite all the APEC members to attend and discuss the way to establish an operative AFERM.
APTERR and other international food-aid programs provided by the other international organizations may have similar purposes to AFERM. But obviously, APTERR does not incorporate all the APEC member economies, and moreover, the international food-aid programs may not be able to give their assistance immediately after the natural calamities devastated in the APEC region.
Different from the other mechanisms, AFERM plans to incorporate all the APEC member economies, and encompass the commonly consumed staple crops in APEC region, including rice, wheat, corn, soybean, potatoes, and cassava. AFERM will provide timely food aid and other essential assistance right after the occurrence of natural disasters. With the help from humanitarian NGOs, the transportation cost of food aid can be lowered.
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Objectives |
The overall goal of this project is to address emergency food needs largely caused by natural disasters in the APEC region. The key objectives of the project are:
(1) To enhance understanding on the importance of regional emergency food
response mechanism in response to nature-incurred or human-induced food
crises;
(2) To help participants in reaching a consensus on the desire of establishing a
regional emergency food response mechanism; and
(3) To create a framework for the establishment of the APEC Food Emergency
Response Mechanism. To make this possible, the APEC member economies are
encouraged to delegate the concerned decision-makers to participate in this
forum.
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Alignment |
The project serves as an immediate response to the Ministers’ and Leaders’ priority in addressing food security as stated in their 2008 joint statement (19-20 November 2008, Lima, Peru). Meanwhile, the Leaders in their 2008 Declaration on “A new commitment to Asia-Pacific development”, further “support a fully coordinated response and a comprehensive strategy to tackle [the food security issue] through the Comprehensive Framework for Action developed by the United Nations (UN) Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis.” The Leaders will also “support the application and implementation of this Framework within the region, as appropriate.”
The project also responds to the 17th 2009 APEC Economic Leader’s Meeting on “Sustaining Growth and Connecting the Region” from November 14-15, 2009. At that meeting, the leaders agreed that Declarations and Ministerial Statements which indicated the climate change and food security are the most important issues relevant to the sustaining growth. Besides, this project is to implement the action plan endorsed by the Ministerial Meeting on Food Security held in Niigata, Japan in 2010, and directly responds to the Niigata Declaration paragraph 10.
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TILF/ASF Justification |
With the establishment of APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism, the overall population of APEC economies will be guaranteed with reliable food supply, and any member economies affected by the natural disasters will be ensured with sustained food supply in case of emergency.
This project will not only give an impetus to the establishment of APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism, but also help all the member economies, especially developing economies, to reinforce their abilities to handle and response the food shortage and related crisis induced by climate change.
The forum should provide the participants with enhanced capacity to: understand the impact of natural disasters on food security in the APEC region, identify feasible ways of establishing a cooperative, cost-effective operation and management of APEC food emergency response mechanism, share experience and expertise among APEC member economies in preparedness and responses to emergency food needs in times of natural calamities, and discuss the needs and gaps of establishing an APEC Food Security Information Database covering statistics on food supply and demand, stocks, trade, prices, etc.
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Beneficiaries and Outputs |
· All the APEC member economies will be the direct beneficiaries of this project, especially developing members. Recently, the severe climate change and natural disasters have great impacts on the food production and supply in the APEC region. Because of being lack of emergency preparedness and the ability to safeguard food security in times of calamity, developing members may suffer from a more serious damage and people may face starvation in a sudden.
· This project is to facilitate the establishment of the APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism, which will help the members, especially the developing members, to advance the capacity building (training program) and to safeguard food security, and also, will make them well-prepared to face the impacts resulted from climate change and natural disasters.
· Different from 2010 APEC Food Security Forum, this year we have invited food security senior official, businessmen, experts, and NGOs. And they will be able to support and develop this mechanism.
· The project will implement the AFERM and will also generate a report describing the mechanism. Besides, a website will also be maintained for the long term to provide information.
· The primary beneficiary of this project would be government officials of APEC Economies, who would find themselves equipped with tested policy options which will include advantages for establishing APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism coping with climate change and food security.
· The secondary beneficiary of this project would be those who were mostly underrepresented in the policy agenda, as a result of a conscious effort to take into account the impact of the food crisis on the most vulnerable in the meeting.
· The APEC region as a whole and the regional food trade in particular would benefit, too, thanks to comprehensive, and workable, recommendations of actions that would involve all the interested parties in the region after the meeting.
· The future beneficiary of the project would be all the member economies. Because APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism will help all the members to reinforce their abilities to handle and respond to the food shortage and related crisis induced by climate change.
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Dissemination |
a. The nature of the target audience: The target audience would be mostly food security related officials (preferable senior officials) and experts who are familiar with the issues of concern. The results of the project should also be accessible to the general public as well.
b. The form and content: Information on APEC economies’ food security policies as related to climate change and the food emergency response mechanism.
c. Format (e.g. hard copies, internet uploading): All related documents will be uploaded to the 2011APEC Food Security Forum: Food Emergency Mechanism website for publicity.
d. Number of copies for the publication: Documents would be available online.
e. A publicity plan for:
i) Briefing the general or specialist media about key components of the project; through web-based publicity.
ii) Promotion of sales or other dissemination of the final product online;
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Gender |
In order to respond to the idea of gender mainstreaming in APEC, the Gender Focal Point Network (GFPN) will be consulted during the process of this food security forum project. The food security forum committee will reinforce gender integration perspectives GFPN pursues by strictly following the concept.
As for the actual engagement in planning of the project, women will be involved, which helps to bring in gender concern in the project. Besides, women will surely have no problem in joining the decision-making process. Male and female participants will be equally viewed as members in discussions.
The proposed activity will make aware of the hardship female face through the discussion of every issue during the forum to ensure that this project benefits both men and women and no one will be left behind.
In implementing the project, special attention will be given to female experts and their views, along with their male counterparts, in order to ensure that gender concern is represented in the policy options at the end of the activity. One of the objectives of the project is to look at food security issues from a broader perspective, including gender concerns and the viewpoint of the most vulnerable.
To achieve the goal, this project will make aware of the hardship female face in combating the food crisis; also, female experts will be invited to speak and participate in the meeting to share their views from female’s perspective. By brining gender concerns into the deliberation of policy options towards the emergency food needs, this project would provide gender sensitive policy recommendations for government officials. Potential outcomes of the project may include: commitment to strengthening human capital investment and supporting small and medium enterprises, so that girls and women can attain their full potential socially and economically. That way, women can fully participate in more productive farming activities and be well integrated into mainstream economy, in both the national and global levels.
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Work Plan |
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Timeline
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Key Events and Deliverables
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April 2011
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Search for the venue in the early stage of the event, and formally announce the project through the APEC Secretariat. Consult with other member economies and other multilateral organizations for their recommendations of potential speakers to be invited.
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May 2011
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Formation of the workshop organizing committee, and preparation of the workshop.
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August 2011
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Hold the “2011 APEC Food Security Forum – APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism”. The Forum will:
(1) discuss the impact of natural disasters on food security in the region; (2) share experiences and best practices among APEC member economies in the preparedness and responses to emergency food needs in times of natural calamities; and (3) deliberate on feasible ways to establish a cooperative, cost-effective operation and management of APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism. Besides, the needs and details of establishing an APEC food security information database covering statistics on food supply and demand, stocks, trade and prices will also be discussed.
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December 2011
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Publication of the workshop proceedings; submission of year-end report
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Risks |
After reviewing the APEC Project Database, this project is not duplicated with all of the APEC projects and activities. Possible risk management strategies: close consultation and cooperation with relevant member economies.
· Outputs not of sufficient quality:
The forum organizing committee will invite several resource persons, who are internationally-recognized experts in food security, climate change, and food market to facilitate the workshop proceeding to reach its objectives. The outputs shall be of superb quality.
· Delays:
In order to avoid delays, the forum organizing committee will make early engagement with the stakeholders and forum participants. The internal deadline remains strict so that the preparation work will progress efficiently.
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Monitoring and Evaluation |
(1) The themes and topics for deliberation, design of report for member economies,
correspondences with resource speakers and facilitators, preparation and
distribution of workshop program and announcement.
(2) The prototype of the AFERM and its plan for the follow-up activities that are to be
refined during the forum.
(3) Number of participated ATCWG delegates, resource speakers, facilitators,
member economy delegates, and participants from public and private sectors, and
humanitarian NGOs.
(4) Resolutions for the following actions and further studies related to the AFERM.
(5) A final report on the forum.
(6) Recommendations on the official formation of the AFERM for the APEC leaders’
endorsement.
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Linkages |
There is no previous or similar activity related to this project in APEC. The APEC Emergency Food Reserve Mechanism has been briefly discussed at the APEC Food Security Forum, 2010, organized by Chinese Taipei, and the initiative is endorsed by the Ministerial Meeting on Food Security held in Niigata, Japan in 2010. The project directly responds to the Niigata Declaration Paragraph 10.
Besides, lessons shall be learned from and synergies built on the existing international emergency food response mechanisms and food aid programs. This project aims at ameliorate food security in the APEC region by forming a platform as emergency food response mechanism. Recent climate change has brought this area many natural disasters and made the issue of food security essential. As a result, the Emergency Preparedness Working Group organized by APEC will also be consulted. The working group addresses issues related to minimize the economical impact of disruption caused by natural disasters, which are similar to our goal because food security forum addresses methodology to minimize the economical impact for effective disaster response.
The project serves as an immediate response to the Ministers’ and Leaders’ priority in addressing food security as stated in their 2008 joint statement (19-20 November 2008, Lima, Peru). Meanwhile, the Leaders in their 2008 Declaration, “A new commitment to Asia-Pacific development”, further “support a fully coordinated response and a comprehensive strategy to tackle [the food security issue] through the Comprehensive Framework for Action developed by the United Nations (UN) Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis.” The Leaders will also “support the application and implementation of this Framework within the region, as appropriate.”
The project also responds to the 17th 2009 APEC Economic Leader’s Meeting on “Sustaining Growth and Connecting the Region” in November 14-15, 2009. At that meeting, the leaders agreed that Declarations and Ministerial Statements which indicated the climate change and food security are the most important issues relevant to the sustaining growth.
When the food security issue started to grab the world’s attention, international organizations, such as the United Nations, were quick to respond by organizing task forces and international meetings, etc. to address the food crisis. However, they were mainly of global concern rather than APEC-specific. Due to the fact that some sub-region of the APEC region is prone to various natural disasters, holding an APEC forum to develop an APEC emergency food response mechanism and food security issues is imperative. This project, by engaging food security related officials of APEC economies, the private sector, humanitarian groups and multilateral organizations, as well as taking gender concerns and the needs of the most vulnerable into consideration, is expected to contribute to comprehensive recommendations of actions for the APEC region.
Since APEC is the host to the world’s leading food exporters and importers, the success of this project, which aims towards a sustainable food system in the region, would also have global significance as well.
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Sustainability |
Should other member economies endorse, the Council of Agriculture of Chinese Taipei will take the lead to develop the AFERM. The website will operate for the long term to provide information and platform to share information and idea. In order to maintain this mechanism, future events and activities will also be developed.
In order to support participants in usage of their new knowledge back in their home economies, training program will be initiated, beginning next year. We will begin the development of the training program by asking participants to provide ideas at this year’s forum.
Through the sharing of experience and good practices of sufficient reliable member economy food reserves, the forum will enhance the capacity building for all participants to articulate the general guidelines of size, governance, financing, management and operation of the proposed APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism so to increase resilience of vulnerable sub-regions in the APEC region to climate change/natural disasters as well as price/supply shocks.
After the project completion, the forum’s proceedings and documentation will be electronically published and used as a base to mobilize all the stakeholders within the APEC organisation, both public and private sectors of the member economies, and regional and international organisations to back up the establishment of the APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism.
Specific future activities should be undertaken under the following areas, with close coordination between them. The activities include ensuring a consultative process with member economies as well as enhancing the necessary skills and support that will ensure sustainability of the APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism: 1) Coordination of member economies’ stocks (collective food stockpiling); 2) Strengthening Information systems and building capacity for forecasting; and 3) Drafting a memorandum of understanding or statement endorsed by APEC senior officers’ statement which elaborates the legal arrangements and outlines specific roles and responsibilities of member economies in the governance and implementation of the APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism.
The APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism will be facilitated with the establishment of an APEC Food Security Information Database. This database is built on the following three closely linked components: 1) An early warning and monitoring component to alert member economies of impending disasters as well as identify and monitor pending emergencies; 2) Vulnerability monitoring systems that in the short-term, identify populations and areas most at risk, and in the long-term, monitor livelihoods, vulnerability and poverty mapping and recommend programmes and initiatives linked to poverty reduction of developing member economies; and 3) An APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism that allows APEC to respond better to food emergencies, that includes an optimal balance between physical and financial reserves as well as member economies’ and sub-regional roles and responsibilities for stocking/de-stocking the reserve.
With the endorsement from the forum participants, the APEC organisation and the APEC member economies, Chinese Taipei is willing to facilitate the establishment of the APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism and to prop up the operation of its initial phase.
The establishment of a functional APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism would contribute to enhancing capacity for timely delivery of food supplies to affected populations in emergencies and minimizing disruptions on longer-term growth and development of affected member economies.
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Project Overseers |
Dr. Su-San CHANG
(1)The overseer of APEC Food Security Forum helded by Chinese Taipei in August, 2010.
(2)Current Position: Director General, Department of International Affairs, Council of Agriculture
(3)Education: Doctor of Soil Science, University of California at Davis, the United States
(4)Experience:
09/2003~06/2008 Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu to the WTO
03/1999~09/2003 Senior Specialist and Division Chief, Department of International Affairs, Council of Agriculture
01/1998~03/1999 Division Chief, Department of International Affairs, Council of Agriculture
03/1994~01/1998 Specialist, Department of Food and Agriculture, Council of Agriculture
07/1986~03/1994 Associate Researcher, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute
10/1980~07/1986 Assistant Researcher, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute
08/1978~10/1980 Research Assistant, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute
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Cost Efficiency |
· A high level of self-financing from supporters contributing to labour, facilities,
travel and other budget areas
· Disseminating project outputs electronically, rather than publishing hard copies
· Making efficient use of consultant or clerical hours
· Employing consultants with experience and a good reputation working on similar
projects
· Using workshop/symposium participants as presenters, enhancing participatory
processes
· Providing capacity and resources for participants to return to their economies and
organize similar events (e.g. training of the trainers), or support for
implementation of outputs (e.g. for best practices or recommendations) in APEC
economies
· Sustainability of outputs and their relevance – demonstrating that reports,
websites, research etc. will be used and updated so it remains relevant in the
medium to long term.
· Demonstrated value of outputs or outcomes to other APEC fora.
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Drawdown Timetable |
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Direct Labour |
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Waivers |
We would like to request for waiver to fund Government Officials’ travel (per diem & airfare).
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Are there any supporting document attached? |
No
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Attachments
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