<p>The Global Forum Steering Committee held its fourth meeting in Washington on the 24th and 25th of October 1998. The meeting was chaired by Dr. R. S. Paroda and was open to observers on October 24th while a closed session took place on October 25th . The open session was intended to allow effective interaction between a range of GFAR members while the closed session was devoted to decisions on management and policy issues critical for the development of the GFAR. The open session was attended by more than 40 persons, including 11 GF-SC members out of 13 (EEC/ CAC regional forum being not yet established and the WANA representative being unable to attend the open session due to his late arrival in Washington). Non GF-SC member participants were NARS leaders, representatives of subregional organizations, as well as IARCs, ARIs, CGIAR persons and a few donors. Germany attended both the sessions being the host country of the coming GFAR 2000.on October 29, 1997 in conjunction with International Centers' Week of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Fernando Chaparro Osorio, Chairman of the Global Forum Steering Committee and Director General of Colciencias/Colombia. Participating Steering Committee members included: Moise Houssou (FARA), Fernando Chaparro Osorio (LAC), William Dar (APAARI), Mohammed El Mourid (AARINENA), Dinguri Nick Mwaniki (Private Sector), Miguel Altieri (NGO), Abdelmajid Slama (Convenor of the donors support group), Russell Freed (North America ARIs), Bent Schmidt-Nielsen (European ARIs), and Nobuyoshi Maeno (Asia/Pacific ARIs). Representatives of the IARCs and of Farmer Organizations could not be present.</p>