These Guidelines are for use in assisting the development of Country Reports as strategic policy documentation covering the state of animal genetic resources, of the art and capacity to manage these resources, and of country needs and priorities.

The Guidelines serve to help support conduct of the country-driven State of the World Process for Animal Genetic Resources, preparation for which is being co-ordinated globally by FAO. The Country Reports will serve as the formative documentation in this Process and the involvement of all stakeholders in the development of these Reports is strongly encouraged.

A broad range of experts and of countries have contributed to developing the Guidelines, which are designed for use in conjunction with the State of the World Reporting Module of the Domestic Animal Diversity Information System http://www.fao.org/dad-is/ following training and in-country coordination of action.