The FAO Regional Conference is an official forum convened every two years, where Ministers of Agriculture and senior officials from the Member States of the region meet to discuss challenges and priority issues related to food and agriculture, with the aim of promoting regional coherence on global policy matters.
As the Organisation’s main governing body at the regional level, the Regional Conference is essential to ensuring the effectiveness of FAO’s work in serving its Member States, as well as to defining priority areas of work for each biennium.
Leaders from the 33 Member Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean actively participate in the Conference, including Ministers of Agriculture of the Member States. Representatives of regional, interregional and international organisations, civil society and the private sector are invited as observers to the Conference sessions.
On this occasion, the guidelines for the work FAO will carry out during the next biennium (2026–2027) will be defined. The event will take place from 2 to 6 March 2026, in the city of Brasília, Brazil, and will be broadcast live through FAO Americas’ online channels.
Prior to LARC39, a consultation and dialogue space will be held with representatives of the private sector on 21 January. In addition to an exchange with the FAO Regional Representative and technical leaders of the regional priorities, there will be a coordination session among private sector participants. This session will serve to generate inputs for the subsequent drafting of a statement outlining the sector’s position, to be submitted to the Member Countries during LARC39, as well as to select the representatives who will represent the sector within the Conference itself in March.
The consultation with the private sector represents a space for dialogue and knowledge exchange aimed at gathering relevant information and identifying the main challenges and recommendations from private sector representatives to FAO in view of the upcoming biennium.
To achieve the proposed objectives, the following sessions will be held:
- FAO–Private Sector Dialogue (21 January, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Santiago de Chile time), where FAO officials will share results from the last biennium and present the proposed work programme for the next biennium (2026–2027), which will be discussed with countries during LARC39.
This session will be mainly informative, is open to the public, and includes ample time for questions to FAO officials. - Private Sector Coordination Session (21 January, 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Santiago de Chile time), where private sector representatives will define specific contributions and organise the drafting of the sector’s statement and the designation of its spokespersons for LARC39.
This session is open, participatory, and coordinated by members of the private sector.
Both sessions are open to the general public (upon prior registration) and will be held virtually. We therefore invite all individuals directly or indirectly connected to the region’s food systems, regardless of their location, to participate.
Register here:
https://fao.zoom.us/meeting/register/kp0QOuHMSmSm2eFs-nuM1Q#/
More information:
https://www.fao.org/americas/events/event-detail/regional-consultation-with-the-private-sector-larc-39/en
Image from the last conference in Guyana, 2024.