From June 4-6, 2007, the first meeting of the interim steering committee (ISC) for the GFAR global partnership program (GPP) entitled “linking farmers to markets” (LFM) was held at the GFAR offices in Rome. The meeting was attended by all members of the committee (representing IFAP, CIAT, FAO, IICA, FARA, FORAGRO, AARINENA, APAARI, GFAR Secretariat). The purpose of the meeting was to define the parameters of the LFM-GPP by: (i) developing a long term plan, (ii) devising the structure for a large global project, based on regional field implementation, (iii) reaching agreement on the interim phase budget and defining the “terms of reference” for 4 regional studies and (iv) outlining important short term activities to be led by the interim committee and regional representatives and fora, to manage activities, that raise the profile of the LFM GPP and mobilise significant funds to fund longer term activities.

The meeting made considerable progress in all of these tasks and the report documents the main outputs (Meeting Report).