ORGANIZATION OF THE MEETING

1. Background

The Meeting was organized in response to the recommendation made by the ESCAP Committee on Poverty Alleviation through Economic Growth and Social Development, which had met in Bangkok from 16 to 18 October 1996, and endorsed by the Commission during its fifty-third session in 1997. The Meeting was organized jointly by ESCAP and UNFPA, with the Government of the Netherlands agreeing to provide support for five participants from the countries of Central Asia.

The organization of the Meeting was guided by a Steering Committee, consisting of the representatives of selected member countries, international NGOs, UNFPA, the UNFPA Country Support Team for East and South-East Asia and ESCAP, constituted for the purpose.


2. Objectives of the Meeting

The objectives of the Meeting were as follows:
(1) To review the progress in the implementation of the Programme of Action and the Bali Declaration, with particular focus on achievements and challenges.

(2) To identify constraints and obstacles faced by countries in the implementation of the recommendations contained in these documents.

(3) To develop strategies for future national and regional-level action programmes that would contribute to national capacity- building in overcoming the constraints and obstacles.


3. Attendance

Ninety-four senior level officials, including the members of the Steering Committee, officials from governments and representatives of NGOs, from 29 countries participated in the Meeting. Representatives of United Nations bodies (United Nations Children's Fund, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), United Nations Development Fund for Women, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS), specialized agencies and related organizations (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, World Health Organization and Universal Postal Union), intergovernmental organizations (Asian Development Bank, International Organization for Migration, Partners in Population and Development), non-governmental organizations (Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Women's Fund for World Peace International, International Committee on the Management of Population Programmes, Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health, Asian-Pacific Resource Center for Women, Family Planning International Assistance), and observers from the Holy See (Apostolic Nunciature in Thailand) also attended the Meeting. Also in attendance were staff of UNFPA and ESCAP.


4. Opening session

The Executive Secretary of ESCAP welcomed HE Mr. Bichai Rattakul, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of UNFPA and all the representatives to the Meeting. He thanked the Deputy Prime Minister and the Executive Director of UNFPA for their presence at the Meeting and for their addresses.

In his statement, the Executive Secretary provided an overview of the changes sweeping the region and the diversity that characterized the ESCAP member countries and its peoples. He underscored the necessity to examine the implementation challenges of both the Programme of Action and the Bali Declaration, and called upon the participants to identify the major constraints and challenges and suggest relevant strategies, as well as provide guidance to ESCAP and other development partners in reorienting their programmes to ensure that they would respond to the specific needs of the countries and the region, and contribute to national capacity-building.

In her keynote address, the Executive Director of UNFPA stressed the importance that was being attached to the review process of the Cairo Conference, and expressed the hope that the review being undertaken by the High-level Meeting would provide a balanced appraisal of the successes achieved and the obstacles that remained in the implementation.

The Executive Director drew the attention of participants to the adverse effects of declining social investments in health and education on girls, women and the vulnerable groups. Even when women had full legal rights, in practice they could not make choices for themselves. She stressed the need for reproductive health programmes to respond to the needs of clients, and for family planning to be integrated with reproductive health care, and also referred to the special reproductive health needs of adolescents.

The Executive Director called for a full range of partnership between governments and civil society, including NGOs and the private sector, in implementing the programmes. While there had been progress in the mobilization of domestic resources, resources from key donor countries had stagnated.

In the light of the foregoing, the current review was critical to maintaining the momentum achieved since the International Conference.

In his inaugural address, the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, speaking on behalf of the Government and people of Thailand, extended greetings and a warm welcome to all those attending the Meeting.

The subject of population was very dear to his heart because every population was made up of individual people and not impersonal numbers. He was proud to associate himself with the noble goals of the Meeting, which would produce long-term benefits for the individuals who made up the population of all the countries and areas in the ESCAP region.

By focusing more on people, governments of countries in the region were moving away from the narrow concerns of achieving impersonal birth control targets towards the more positive and broader target-free family planning and reproductive health considerations. The emphasis was thus on the needs and well-being of individuals - real people who had feelings and emotions as well as the ability to produce children.

The paradigm shift instituted by the Programme of Action enabled the consideration of a multitude of issues, ranging from the challenges of achieving more equitable labour- force participation to the complexities posed by gender issues. Emerging population and development issues included population ageing, urbanization, rural-to-urban migration, international migration, environmental degradation and the exploitation of resources made more rapid as a result of the globalization process.

Women in Thailand were on an equal footing with men in terms of educational opportunities and labour-force participation; the status that girls and women enjoyed in a society had a direct impact on the ability of that society to develop both economically and socially. To make sure that such even-handed "people concerns" were given greater force, they were also written into the law as well as reflected in Thailand's major policy instruments: its five-year National Economic and Social Development Plans.

Noting that Thailand's current economic downturn presented a difficult obstacle in terms of making possible the benefits of development, the Deputy Prime Minister said that there were aspects related to the country's past population policies that were helping it in its efforts to cope with trying times.

The Asian and Pacific region was at a unique point in its historical development, with many countries having made enviable advances economically. However, as the region was at the threshold of a new millennium, the Deputy Prime Minister called for more progress to be made in the social arena than had been the case in the past. Asian and Pacific societies must be willing to invest in people at least as quickly as they did in factories and skyscrapers.

Before declaring the Meeting open, he said that developing countries in the region needed assistance from the United Nations as well as donor governments and non-governmental organizations. "To delay building on what has already been accomplished would be a step backwards - a betrayal of the people who depend on us for a better future".