The FINAL global and regional Summary Documents for Decision-Makers
and the Synthesis Report are now available on the web, for the last External
Review - now through October 22nd.
http://www.agassessment.org/index.cfm?Page=Review&ItemID=2713
We invite you to review and critique these summary documents. The US government,
World Bank, industry and others are gearing up and dedicating massive amounts
of person-hours/resources to challenge and undermine the findings of the IAASTD,
which they accuse of being "anti-technology" , "anti-industry"
and "anti-trade." We would welcome comments to counter their challenge,
and to defend/strengthen key messages about equity, food sovereignty, agroecology
and the urgent need to re-orient future development funding and policies to
support equitable and sustainable development.
WHAT TO REVIEW:
The Global SDM and the Executive
Summary of the Synthesis Report are perhaps the two
most important individual documents, as these will be negotiated line by line
in Nairobi and approved (or not) by all participating governments. All the key
contentious issues appear in these reports, and their discussion of "options
for action" merits close and critical attention.
The full Synthesis report is the next most important document; certain contentious themes within the SR (i.e. biotech, trade) will receive a great deal of attention, and we must be prepared to defend what is good there and strengthen what is weak/problematic. (The human health theme and its discussion of policy options would be of particular interest to those working on pesticides/pest management, food security and food sovereignty issues).
The five regional SDMs will also be reviewed line by line by governments from their respective regions and deserve close attention as well, particularly by those with experience and expertise in the regions. The quality and key messages of the regional reports varies tremendously between them.
HOW TO REVIEW:
Authors and review editors follow the usual habits of scientific reviews. They
preferably take into account what is perceived as proven evidence from reviewed
scientific literature. However, it has been agreed that in addition to peer
reviewed scientific articles additional evidence must be taken into account
as well. General opinions and points of view are not seen as valid evidence
without further backing. Comments on the SDM and Synthesis Report should therefore
be made based on the relevant literature. This literature may or may not already
have been cited in the underlying text (the chapters of the full reports, see
below). To the extent that review comments can refer to the underlying chapter
text, it would be helpful.
The full Assessment
The full assessment is not available for review again. The last versions of
the global and sub-regional assessments can still be downloaded
on this website. However, most of them have undergone massive changes since
the last review.
Below are the second drafts of all chapters for the assessment as put out for review in May 2007 for historic reference (big files .zip compressed). Also, they are a rich source of references to scientific articles.
Global North
America and Europe Subsaharan
Africa Latin America
& Carribean Central
and West Africa North Asia East
& South Asia and Pacific