1. OPENING REMARKS
In his opening remarks, Mr. Mohammad Roozitalab, GFAR Chair, welcomed all participants,
with a special recognition of those attending the meeting for the first time, such as new
Regional Fora (RF) chairs from APAARI (Mr. H.P.M. Gunasena), FARA (Ms. Njabulo
Nduli) and other stakeholder representatives Mr. Ron Bonnett from IFAP and Mr. Robert
Carreau from the European Commission (see the full list participants in Annex 2). He
reminded participants of the decision to convert the NARS sub-Committee to a Program

The meeting was opened by GFAR Chair Mohammed Roozitalab who welcomed all participants and
noted that all of the regional for a (RF) chairs and executive secretaries were present or adequately
represented (See Annex 1 for attendance list). This full participation, according to him is important
given the objectives of the meeting, which were to discuss activities and progress made by the RF
during the year and subsequently in a closed session to screen the pre-proposals of the DURAS