The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN) was selected to occupy the seat of Western Asia during a series of meetings for the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) on the sidelines of the 45th Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) held on 11-19 October, 2018 in Rome.

APN volunteer Heather al-Aydi represented the group at the CSM coordination committee meeting which discussed APN’s priority of adding permanent seats in CSM for communities living under conflict, occupation and protracted crises.

Around 200 representatives of organizations attended the CSM Forum held in the same period in Rome. Al-Aydi spoke about APN’s success in organizing a regional meeting in Lebanon and a national one in Jordan - in conjunction with ESCWA- which brought together public, civil society and private sector delegates.

The two meetings focused on ways to implement the CFS Framework for Action on Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises. The framework was endorsed by the CFS in Rome in 2015.During the CFS session, al-Aydi took part in a panel discussion on protection of human rights activists where she highlighted Israel’s brutal punishment of Palestinian activists by incarceration without trial, in addition to the detention of hundreds of children every year.

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all.