From: Information Resource Centre (IRC@col.org)
Date: Fri Dec 06 2002 - 08:51:11 PST
> PACIFIC MINISTERS TACKLE GROWING POPULATION, GROWING POVERTY BANGKOK, Thailand (PINA Nius Online) - Ministers and senior officials from the Pacific are heading for Bangkok this month to focus on the links between growing population and poverty - and ways to overcome them. They are attending the ministerial-level Fifth Asian and Pacific Population Conference from 11 to 17 December. It is expected to adopt a new action plan with regard to population and development, gender, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and their relations with poverty. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) are convening the conference. Held once every ten years, the last meeting took place in Bali, Indonesia, in 1992. The conference will incorporate the challenges set out in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. These were agreed upon by 147 heads of State and Government at the Millennium Summit in New York in 2000. The Bangkok conferen
ce will be divided into two segments; the senior officials segment from 11-14 December, and the ministerial segment from 16-17 December. One of the foremost targets of the Millennium Development Goals is to halve by 2015 the proportion of persons who live in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is defined as those whose income is less than US$1 a day. This has particular relevance for the countries of the UNESCAP region because the overwhelming majority of the world's poor live in this region. Said a UNESCAP expert: "The relationship between poverty and population trends is significant yet complex. These aspects will be dealt with in all its facets by the forthcoming conference which will gather ministers, senior officials, researcher-scientists, and representatives of civil society from numerous countries and territories of the region." Some of the foremost experts in the world will speak on issues relating to population and poverty, presenting findings that reflect new developments. They will discuss innovativ
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action plan is expected to aim at further advancing implementation of the 1992 Bali Conference and the Program of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. The plan of action will seek to highlight the problems and areas that require concerted attention from governments, international donors and organisations, and society during the next 10 years. Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) Website: <http://www.pinanius.org>
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