According to the GFAR charter, one of the main task and responsibility of the Secretariat is to assist GFAR stakeholders in the formulation of the GFAR BP, and its implementation through an annual Programme of Work (PoW), which according to the first external review panel of GFAR should clearly indicate what the secretariat will do to facilitate the implementation of the BP by the stakeholders. The role of the Secretariat is therefore mainly one of facilitation, except perhaps in two areas where it is expected to play a lead role and take responsibility for implementation. These are firstly the development of EGFAR in order to facilitate communication amongst the geographically widespread stakeholders. The other area where it can play a pro-active and lead role is under the advocacy pillar, where it can on one hand drive initiatives to encourage a balanced representation of stakeholders within the regional fora, and on the other hand stimulate debate and discussion on controversial issues of global importance and relevance to ARD, for the purposes of contributing to their resolution. Concrete actions that the Secretariat will carry out under each of the pillars to facilitate their implementation or proactively drive their implementation as the case may be are described below