The meeting was opened by Fernando Chaparro, Chairman of the NARS Steering Committee
(NARS-SC) as well as of the Global Forum Steering Committee (GF-SC) who welcomed all
participants to the meeting.
In his introductory speech, Fernando mentioned that this second meeting was organized as an
open meeting to which were invited not only the Chairpersons of the 5 Regional Fora but also
the Chairpersons or Executive Secretaries of the sub-regional associations or organizations,

<p>GFAR Chair Raj Paroda welcomed all stakeholders present at the meeting. Referring to the NARS Committee meeting held the previous day, he highlighted the need to strengthen the role of the NARS Committee and the importance of advancing inter-regional activities. He acknowledged the GFAR Secretariat for being able to handle very well the transition phase of GFAR and called for a more enhanced interaction of the secretariats of both GFAR and the regional/sub-regional fora. He then introduced and welcomed the incoming GFAR Executive Secretary, Dr. Ola Smith.