From
13th to 18th November 1996 the Italian capital of Rome hosted the World
Food Summit. Statistics says that representatives of 186 countries, including
41 presidents, 15 vice-presidents and 41 prime ministers travelled to the
"Eternal City" for the Summit, which was attended by a total of 9,863 delegates,
representatives of NGOs, UN agencies and other international bodies, journalists
and support staff.
The event concluded with leaders pledging their "political will and common and national commitment" to secure the Summit goal of reducing the number of hungry people in the world by half by the year 2015. The "Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the Summit Plan of Action" was adopted. The heads of states and government vowed to achieve food security by cooperating with one another as well as UN organizations and NGOs in a "Food for All" campaign. It is based on the Plan of Action and it contains seven commitments which range from sustainable increases in food production, poverty eradication and access to adequate food, to the contribution of trade to food security.
Participating delegations used the world meeting also for bilateral and multilateral negotiations, attending accompanying events, "discovering" and consulting FAO information resources and services provided during the Summit week.
Many were attracted by the demonstration stands of FAO's WAICENT, a computerized World Agricultural Information Centre. The Centre provides clients - governments, research institutions, universities, and private users - with fast economical access to FAO's vast library of information on agriculture, fisheries, forestry, nutrition and rural development.
Though the schedules of heads of states were more than busy, some of them did find time and "made a trip into the information land".
On Saturday, 16th November 1996, it was an honour and pleasure to welcome at the WAICENT demonstration site His Excellency, President of the Slovak Republic, Michal Kovac. Mr. Kovac was interested in FAO information accessible via Internet, Summit topicals and experience of the Slovak FAO staff member with her work in the D. Lubin Memorial Library. Mr. President and the Slovak delegation got acquainted with the FAO homepage on the World Wide Web, they were briefed on the FAOINFO and FAOSTAT databases, and requested searches for population and other FAOSTAT data on Slovakia were demonstrated for them.
On Sunday, 17th November, Mr. Kovac with his wife and the Slovak delegation visited FAO's David Lubin Memorial Library. They were accompanied by the Slovakia's Permanent Representative to FAO Mrs. M. Kadlecikova, and the Charge d'Affaires of Slovakia Embassy in Rome, Mr. F. Hruska.
Honorable guests were welcomed by Mr. Anton Mangstl, Director of Library and Documentation Systems Division (GIL) and Mrs. Jane Wu, Chief Librarian of David Lubin Memorial Library. Mr. M. Lindau, Director of FAO's Regional Office for Europe, Mr. J. Judy, FAOINFO Dissemination Manager and Mr. L. Kabat, Director of Statistics Division were also present.
A briefing on GIL Division's missions and activities and an overview of the Library's history and present challenges were presented. Information on technical projects cooperation between FAO and Slovakia was provided. Visitors, then, had an opportunity to see the demonstration of FAO's specialized information systems: DAD-IS, the communication and information tool for implementing the Global Strategy for the Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources, and GIEWS, the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture.
At the end of the visit, the Slovak President and his wife graciously expressed their thanks and signed the Library's Guest Book.