Latin American and the Caribbean Commission for Agricultural Statistics (LACCAS) (formerly FAO/OEA-CIE/IICA Working Group on Agricultural and Livestock Statistics for Latin America and the Caribbean) (RLC-705)

Article VI.2

This body was originally established in 1958 in the framework of the Economic Commission for Latin America, Subcommittee on statistical coordination as a joint effort between FAO and the Interamerican Statistical Institute (IASI) with the aim of improving coordination in agricultural statistics. The body held regular meetings and in 1994, IASI withdrew from the Working Group and was replaced by the Organization of American States (OEA) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in the framework of the Interamerican Conference for Statistics (CIE). It was henceforth known as the FAO-OEA/CIE-IICA Working Group on Agricultural and Livestock Statistics for Latin America and the Caribbean.

During the working group´s thirty-first session held in 2023, members recognized, inter alia, that “the name of this current body does not reflect its character” because “the term ‘working group’ does not correspond to the nature of a technical commission of FAO and implies a less formal and less important mechanism. In addition, it implies a defined operational timeline and specific technical products”. Accordingly, the group proposed to change the name to Latin American and the Caribbean Commission for Agricultural Statistics (LACCAS) and proposed legal statutes given the absence of any formal legal basis for terms of reference, membership, and other operational aspects. The legal statutes proposed were designed to correspond to the legal statutes of the African Commission for Agricultural Statistics (AFCAS), and Asian and Pacific Commission for Agricultural Statistics (APCAS).

In this regard, in its 175th Council session of FAO, the Council endorsed this name change as well as additional specific legal statutes. 

General Rules of the Organization