CEDAW/C/1996/3/Add.4 English Page 14 (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The synthesis of these reports served as a regional input to the Beijing Conference, and the recommendations were translated into a Plan of Action for Women in Agriculture in the Near East to cover the decade 1996-2005. In addition, FAO prepared a paper on women in resource-management and the environment - a Near East perspective, which was distributed at Beijing. 58. At the international level, FAO undertook activities to ensure that important issues such as food security, migration, environmental degradation and other concerns, which have a strong impact on rural women and communities, were discussed at Beijing. The organization prepared specialized information materials, including country fact sheets, to relay simple and concise messages on rural women’s roles in sustainable agriculture and food security. FAO also prepared an updated bibliography on the role of women in agriculture and rural development and produced an activities report detailing its support to rural women and the ongoing women in development programme. Both documents were distributed at the Fourth World Conference on Women. 59. FAO also coordinated its activities with a number of joint United Nations efforts and programmes by participating in inter-agency meetings, including the Commission on the Status of Women, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/Development Assistance Committee (DAC)/women in development group meetings, and many expert meetings and informal consultations. FAO prepared the section on women’s access to land and natural resources for the 1994 update of the World Survey on Women and contributed to the section on women’s access to credit and financial institutions. In addition, FAO participated in the global information campaign regarding the Conference by distributing and, where necessary, supplementing the materials provided by the Department of Public Information of the United Nations Secretariat. 60. FAO provided support to the International Federation of Agricultural Producers for the preparation of a document entitled "From the Women Farmers’ Perspective: A Synthesis of the Results of the Regional Preparatory Meetings for the Fourth World Conference on Women". The document was presented at a technical consultation for women farmers in March 1995, during the thirty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the last preparatory conference for Beijing. 61. In addition, FAO developed an internal information campaign to inform its staff about the Conference and to encourage their contribution to preparatory activities. FAO also provided regular updates and information notes to member nations, as well as within FAO, on Conference preparations and its own programme of activities in preparation for Beijing. C. Affirmative action issues 62. Although progress has been made since the 1993 Conference, the United Nations target of 35 per cent female Professional staff by 1995 has not been reached. Identifying qualified female candidates for positions in FAO’s specialized technical fields still proves difficult, notwithstanding member /...