The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development( AOAD) held the 42nd session of the Executive Council(EC) on Thursday, 19th of December 2013 at the Head office of the League of Arab States ( LAS), Cairo, Egypt. The Session was presided over by H.E Abdulwahab Nouri, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Algeria, Chairman of the Council and was attended by their excellencies members of the EC as well as the representative of LAS General secretariat.

During the session the Council reviewed the AOAD Director General's report on the achievements of the Organization during the period between the present and previous sessions of the council in the areas of follow-up of the Arab Emergency Program for Food Security, development projects, studies, agriculture and fisheries statistics, HRD, National meetings, technical support, consultancies, documentation, IT, Arab house of expertise, AOAD Awards for scientific innovation, remote sensing and cooperation with regional and international organizations.

The Council expressed its appreciation for the remarkable achievements within the report period and thanked the Director General and his subordinates for the good performance.

The Council also reviewed reports and memos on the various agenda items and issued, after careful deliberations, (24) resolutions on issues relating to the various aspects of the policies and programs of the Arab food security, especially in the field of plant genetic resources, the Arab network for animal resources gene banks, the Arab program for integrated and sustainable agricultural and rural development in Darfur, Sudan, the Africa-Arab Joint action plan of action for food security and agricultural development in the two regions and the Arab program for agricultural and fisheries training as well as on animal health, aquaculture and follow-up of the implementation of the international convention on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.

The Council also issued resolutions establishing the Arab program for climate change and food security and the Arab program for control of pests using irradiation techniques. It further agreed the establishing of a revolving- fund mechanism to contribute to the self-funding of the organization’s activities.