ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TO HOLD HIGH-LEVEL MEETING TO REVIEW ANTI-POVERTY EFFORTS ON 17 FEBRUARY

Note to Correspondents

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TO HOLD HIGH-LEVEL MEETING TO REVIEW

ANTI-POVERTY EFFORTS ON 17 FEBRUARY

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) initiates a 2004 review of efforts to mobilize domestic and international resources to stem the tide of poverty and instability in the least developed countries (LDCs), at a high-level meeting on Tuesday, 17 February, in New York.

The world’s 50 least developed countries are crucial battlegrounds in the international fight against poverty.  While some LDCs have achieved a measure of social and economic progress in the three years since adoption of a United Nations action programme -– observers include Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Uganda and Samoa, among them -– most remain subject to severe economic, political and social stresses.  The United Nations has mounted peacekeeping operations over the years in LDCs in which such stresses have led to severe conflict, including in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Somalia.

Remarks by Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs José Antonio Ocampo will open the meeting, which is chaired by ECOSOC President Marjatta Rasi (Finland).  Following will be a statement from Donald Kaberuka, the Finance Minister of Rwanda.

A keynote address will be delivered by Raghuram Rajan, Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), making his first appearance at United Nations Headquarters since his appointment in July 2003.

Leaders of morning round-table discussions (10:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.) will include Under-Secretary General Anwarul Chowdhury, the United Nations High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, and the Special Adviser on Africa, Ibrahim Gambari.  Among the discussants is Arjun Karki, representing the non-governmental organization consortium, LDC Watch.

An afternoon round table (3 p.m. – 5 p.m.) features the heads of the four UN regional commissions:  Brigita Schmögnerová, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE); Jose Luis Machinea, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC); Mervat Tallawy, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA); and Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).  Also participating is Dr. Siddig AbdelmageedSalih, Chief of the Economic Policy Division of the Islamic Development Bank.

Serving as a guideline for the discussions on 17 February will be the action plan adopted in Brussels in May 2001, at the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries.  At that time, more than half of the population of the LDCs subsisted on one dollar a day or less, and more than 80 per cent on less than two dollars, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Coordination of efforts by the international community, United Nations agencies and the least developed countries themselves to forward the Brussels Programme of Action will be the focal point of ECOSOC’s high-level segment in New York in June 2004.

Reporters who wish to attend the 17 February ECOSOC meeting and who do not have UN press credentials should fax a letter of assignment to 1-212-963-4642, and follow up with a call to the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit at 1-212-963-7164.

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Tim Wall of the Department of Public Information, tel. 1-212-963-5851, e-mail: wallt@un.org.

List of Least Developed Countries

Afghanistan       Angola       Bangladesh       Benin       Bhutan       Burkina Faso       Burundi       Cambodia       Cape Verde Central African          Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of          Congo Djibouti Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gambia Guinea Guinea-Bissau Haiti Kiribati Lao People’s          Democratic Republic Lesotho Liberia

Madagascar Malawi Maldives Mali Mauritania Mozambique Myanmar Nepal Niger Rwanda Samoa Sao Tome and Principe Senegal Sierra Leone Solomon Islands Somalia Sudan Timor-Leste Togo Tuvalu Uganda United Republic of          Tanzania Vanuatu Yemen Zambia

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