GBEP roundup from Rome: news from Steering Committee meeting, Working Group on Capacity Building and workshop on food security

The 16th Steering Committee meeting of the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) was held in Rome on 13 December 2013, hosted at FAO Headquarters and attended by 28 Partners and Observers.

The meeting welcomed the request of the Philippines and of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to become GBEP Observers and saw the participation of UN SEFA (SE4ALL) as special guest.

The Steering Committee congratulated the Working Group, which gathered on 11, 12 and 13 December, for the successful conclusion of its Activity Group 1  and for the progress made in the other activity groups. The Activity Group 2, in particular, had recently held a  workshop on the piloting in Ghana of GBEP Sustainability Indicators (Cape Verde, Praia 7-8 November 2013), while the Activity Group 3 is planning a new Bioenergy Week to be held in Maputo, Mozambique in spring 2014. The Steering Committee also endorsed the establishment of a new Activity Group on wood energy to be carried out within the framework of the Working Group on Capacity Building (see different item in this newsletter).

Rome was also the scene of a half-day GBEP workshop focusing on ways to achieve bioenergy development and food security, held on 11 December.  The workshop discussed how, despite the availability of tools and competencies, there is a general lack of information knowledge on the topic. This mismatch is one of the main reasons preventing the debate from moving forward in a meaningful way. In the attempt of resolving this mismatch, the workshop described practical experiences and tools demonstrating that it is possible to reduce risks and harness opportunities regarding bioenergy and food security. Among the various presentations, detailed results from the measurement of Indicator 10 (Price and supply of a national food basket) in Indonesia and Colombia were presented.

Presentations from the Working Group on Capacity Building meeting are available on the GBEP website.

 

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