THREE EXPERT PANELS TO DISCUSS IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIAL SUMMIT ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMME

22 May 1996

Press Release

THREE EXPERT PANELS TO DISCUSS IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIAL SUMMIT ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMME

19960522 Panels to Meet as Part of Special Session of Commission for Social Development

The latest thinking on strategies for eliminating world-wide poverty will be discussed this afternoon and tomorrow by a group of experts convened by the Commission for Social Development.

The Commission responsible for coordinating follow-up to last year's World Summit for Social Development, will host three panels on poverty eradication. These will include authorities from a number of non-governmental organizations, academia and the United Nations system.

The panels are part of a special 10-day session of the Commission to discuss how to implement the Summit's goals of attacking poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. The 1995 Summit, held in Copenhagen, ended with an agreement by 117 world leaders that the global spread of poverty required an across-the-board mobilization of society as well as national anti-poverty policies and strategies. A key commitment was the leaders' pledge to eradicate absolute poverty by a target date to be set by each country.

The panels this week are part of a larger effort by the Social Commission to open its debates to experts and the main actors of civil society in the field of social development, to generate innovative proposals and to promote greater dialogue. They will be chaired by Koos Richelle (Netherlands), the current Chairman of the Commission.

The topics of the three panels, shown below with a list of speakers, reflect major sub-themes of poverty eradication in the Copenhagen Programme of Action:

"Formulation of Integrated Strategies for Poverty Eradication", Wednesday, 22 May, 3 to 6 p.m., Conference Room 2, Roberto Bissio, Director, Instituto del Tercer Mundo (Montevideo, Uruguay); Louis Emmerij, Special Adviser to the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (Washington, D.C.); Valimohamed Jamal, Senior Specialist on Labour Markets and Human Resources, International Labour Organisation (ILO) East Asia Multi- Disciplinary Advisory

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Team (Bangkok, Thailand); Pasuk Phongpaichit, Political Economy Centre, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand); Gerry Rodgers, Director, ILO Latin America Multi-Disciplinary Technical Advisory Team (Santiago, Chile).

"Meeting Basic Human Needs of All", Thursday, 23 May, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Conference Room 2, Leonor Briones, Development Caucus (Philippines); Yao Graham, Integrated Social Development Center (Ghana); Kerstin Trone, Deputy Executive Director (Programme), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and Jan Vandemoortele, Director, Office of Social Policy and Economic Analysis, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

"Promotion of Self-Reliance and Community-Based Initiatives", Thursday, 23 May, 3 to 6 p.m., Conference Room 2, Else Oyen, Professor of Social Policy, University of Bergen (Norway) and Chair, Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP); Kasa Pangu, Senior Adviser, Health Systems Development Unit, UNICEF; Huguette Redegeld, Vice President, International Movement ATD Fourth World (France); and Atila Roque, Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analyses (IBASE).

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