 I will introduce you by briefly sketching the context and giving some answers to the questions listed on the screen. The global landscape, the audience gathered here does not need an introduction to the importance of livestock, shown here with a series of compelling figures. Reference to some of these figures has already been made in the various opening addresses. As we progress, I will refer to the figures and their relevant context. But it is worthwhile to reflect for a moment why we are here. Livestock matters to human development. Growing incomes, urbanization, population growth and changing food habits heavily increase the demand for animal products in the coming decades. Estimates are as high as 70% increase till 2050. To meet the demand, traditional smallholder livestock systems and modern forms of intensive livestock production are needed. The potentials and roles of traditional systems in this context need to be explored. Livestock has environmental impacts. Both positive and negative impacts need to be addressed. Livestock converts biomass for which there is no alternative use into valuable products. Livestock uses a great share of available land, water and nutrients and emits substantial amounts of greenhouse gases. That's why it is so relevant and needs to be talked about. That's why we are here. At the human livestock junction, there are many arguments why livestock is so relevant. Livestock is fundamental to the food and nutrition security of low income earners in many countries as food, as additional income and also as collateral. Livestock is often kept by women who very often have less access to land and other resources. Consuming livestock products balances human diets in an important part of many healthy and traditional diets. Livestock is also part of many traditional livelihoods and lifestyle and is an important part of the cultural heritage. On the other side, substantial use of antimicrobials for animal health contributes to drug resistance, a growing concern to human and animal health. What does that mean? Keeping livestock is an integral part of proven strategies to make households resilient against environmental and also economic shocks. The source of additional income livestock will remain of particular importance to many small holders, pastoralists, marginal farmers and especially women. Certain regions actually would not be habitable without the keeping of animals. But how should we approach practical action? To be able to tackle most of the critical issues, a collaborative approach is needed. A collaborative approach that reflects diversity in livestock systems worldwide and the different demands and expectations placed on the sector. To achieve the listed aims, we have to discuss and answer the following questions. How can we effectively participate in relevant policy debates and support each other? How do we facilitate our dialogue? We do have different interests to reconcile. What do we do to make joint analysis happen to enable us to identify entry points for practice change? What is the contribution of harmonized metrics and methodologies? Can we translate these into something tangible with practical use? These questions will guide us throughout this meeting and we will have ample scope for debate. And surely we want to promote innovation and support investments, but we need to become creative. We need to become innovative and implement our innovation. Let's have a closer look at innovation. Innovation can be triggered by relative scarcities that put pressure on productivity levels. The prospect of profits can facilitate technological advancement. However, innovation processes need our support. We need to look at how we can enhance the capturing of experience, making experience visible and available to others. Are there examples of how markets were made more responsive? How can we practically assist the formulation of conducive policies not only on livestock, but also on the ones affecting livestock? What does it really mean when we say we want to empower institutions that deal with livestock issues? Our meeting this week will try to answer some of these questions. With the topic achieving multiple benefits through livestock-based solutions, we will share and discuss progress, articulate lessons from successful tool application practice change, and identify opportunities and challenges for the global agenda for the entire livestock sector. Looking at the list of participants and also looking into the room, we realized that we can welcome, and we are happy about that, a substantial number of persons who join us for the first time. Therefore, please allow me to give you a short update on the global agenda for sustainable livestock. The multi-stakeholder partnership is committed to results on a global agenda for sustainable livestock development. The partnership engages in dialogue and sharing knowledge and promotes policy and practice change. The partnership is composed of a whole range of different types of organizations. In brief, we are a committed partnership, a consensus-seeking group, and a diverse set of players. By signing our consensus documents, all partners have declared their commitment to deliver on a global agenda for sustainable livestock development. The partnership is open and voluntary, inclusive and consensual. It operates on the basis of profound knowledge and deep respect for one another. We aim at facilitating a real global dialogue, share knowledge and promote local practice and policy change. We have 200, now almost 300 participants who convene each year to deliberate on the current situation livestock keeping is faced with and as well to try and anticipate upcoming challenges. To have an inclusive, consensual partnership, we need a structure. The global agenda took quite some time to develop the structure, but now we are quite happy to have developed a functional structure. We are structured in seven clusters. We have a public sector, the private sector, the donors, NGOs, the social movements, multilateral and international organizations, and academic research. Five representatives of each cluster constitute the guiding group. The guiding group appoints the chair and provides executive guidance to the partnership and the secretary aide. The secretary aide of the global agenda, as already mentioned by Dr. Ren Wang, is hosted by FAO in Rome. FAO is a member of the agenda, but also provides conceptual support and technical expertise. The agenda is financed by contributions by a few members and supported in kind by FAO. We have been able to expand the donor base in the last year. However, the global agenda still needs to strengthen its financial base. The real and technical work is done in the action networks. These action networks are dynamic and rely on their own partnership and their links to like-minded partner institutions. In the action networks, experts from the different clusters exchange and enhance their experiences. The action networks are really important, and we hope that in this meeting we can actually energize the action networks and give them more importance in the future. The current action networks are the following ones. Closing the efficiency gap. This network supports the application of existing technologies and good agricultural practices to improve natural resources use efficiency in livestock supply chains. Restoring value to grasslands pursues better management of grazing land which contributes to carbon sequestration, protection of water resources and biodiversity. Ways to worse deals is recovering and recycling of nutrients and energy contained in animal manure and animal waste. The global network of silo-pastral systems looks at the integration of livestock with pastures and forests. The Dairy Asia Partnership for Health and Prosperity works on building a sustainable dairy sector in Asia and the Pacific region. The livestock environmental assessment and performance partnership develops metrics and guidelines to improve the environmental performance of livestock supply chains while taking into account economic and social viability. Results and ongoing projects of all these action networks will be on display this week and we are invited to visit, to discuss and to comment them. A series of new action networks are under construction. The ones which have progressed well and are ready to be discussed in the guiding group are livestock antimicrobial partnership. I've just read in newspaper that very recently there was a conference here in Ethiopia on that issue. Livestock for social development, animal welfare action network and investments for sustainable livestock production. The projects for these action networks also will be on display for us this week. We hope to get inputs from the meeting to further develop these action networks. Let's have a brief look at the history of the major milestones in the global agenda. It was interesting in the press conference that the press wanted to know the history of our partnership. The consultation process officially started in 2010 with the FAO Committee of Agriculture side event. Actually it started earlier in Switzerland when we launched the book Livestock in a Changing Landscape in the university I was working for. So far we had six MSP meetings in Brazil, in Thailand, in Kenya in Canada, in Colombia and in Panama. The agenda developed from an environmental focus to full sustainability and to the SDGs. The global agenda developed and proved rules and procedures and is governed as mentioned by an active guiding group represented by seven clusters. This process took time, but now we have a solid and inclusive structure. The action networks impact around the world through concrete applications and uptake of these results is an important achievement. More recently, the Committee of Agriculture of FAO endorsed our work and appreciated our achievements, our governance and acknowledged the importance of the action networks. The high level panel of experts report of the Committee for Food Security in 2016 emphasizes the importance of multi-stakeholder processes and cites the global agenda as an example of an important multi-stakeholder partnership towards achieving the SDGs. The new mentioned action networks under construction also can be considered a major achievement. The steep increase of members since Panama is also an indicator that we are on the right track. In the last 12 months, the membership grew from 62 to 89 members. It's an increase of 43%. All clusters were able to welcome new members. The public sector, the donor and the NGO clusters showing the highest increases. The sixth MSP in Panama were willing sustainable livestock development with the SDGs made the added value of the global agenda visible. This is definitely an important reason for the increase in membership. Let's have a brief look at the livestock SDG nexus. The 2030 Agenda is a broad framework of action with critical importance for humanity and the planet. It builds the reference frame for the global agenda. The goals and targets set by the UN are used by the major development partners to position themselves and to clarify their ambitions for the next 15 years. The goals balance the three dimensions of sustainable development, the economic, social and environmental dimensions. As such, they pose an extraordinary opportunity for the livestock sector. In Panama last June, we focused on linking sustainable livestock sector development to the SDGs. In a number of interactive sessions, we linked livestock sector development from multiple angles and viewpoints to the SDGs. The process is now well known as the pizza game. Because of the integrated and indivisible nature of the goals and the fact that livestock is strongly linked with human life, basically all SDGs are relevant to livestock keeping. However, the sixth MSP, the global agenda, identified eight with particular importance to the development of the livestock sector. They are shown here on the slide. In 2017, the partnership has crosscutting all being critical to the agenda as an institution. The meeting here this week also will focus on the SDG number five, gender equality. Again, this week in this week with the topic achieving multiple benefits through livestock based solutions will connect to where we left the discussion in Panama by sharing and discussing progress. It takes the discussion a step further based on tools, cases and by articulating lessons from successful practised change. The meeting will inspire and motivate the action network to innovate, explore and implement practised change and will identify opportunities and challenges for the global agenda and show the way forward. That's our hope. The global agenda for sustainable livestock. A multi-stakeholder partnership for multiple benefits through livestock based solutions. That's what we are here for this week. The organisers have developed a fabulous menu for us. Let's go for it. Thank you.