| In 1990 FAO developed a Global Strategy for the management of farm animal genetic resources. The primary guidelines for the development of an action plan for AnGR were drafted by FAO in 1996.
A Global Strategy raised its full development when the FAO'S Commission on Plant Genetic Resources broadened its mandate (Resolution 3/95) to cover all components of agro-biodiversity of relevance to food and agriculture. It was then renamed the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA). The Intergovernmental Technical Working group on Animal Genetic Resources was created in 1997 (ITWG-AnGR). This group reinforces the Global Strategy during its first meeting in September 1998.
The key component of the Global Strategy is the Country-Based Planning and Implementation Infrastructure, which includes five key structural elements:
- the Global Focal Point,
- Regional Focal Points, and
- National Focal Points,
- the donor and stakeholder involvement mechanism, and
- the Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS).
Regional Focal Points are, therefore, broadly intended to assist the countries of a region to design and establish their own most cost-effective management programmes for animal genetic resources and for the maintenance of domestic animal diversity and to coordinate common regional and sub-regional needs and activities which include policy development, training, research and field activities. | 
