VOL.VII, NO.2
FEBRUARY 1996
The SAARC HOUSING MINISTER' CONFERENCE
The SAARC Housing Ministers' Conference was held in Colombo on 28 February 1 March 1996,
with the primary focus to formulate a SAARC collective position preparatory to the Second United
Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) scheduled to be held in Istanbul in June
1996. The Conference was attended by all Member States and the SAARC Secretariat was
represented by SecretaryGeneral Naeem U.Hasan and Director Ahmed Latheef.The Ministerial
Meeting of the Conference was preceded by a meeting of the Officials, which formulated the draft
of the Colombo Resolution on Human Settlements and submitted it to the Ministers for their
consideration.The Housing Ministers' Conference was opened by Secretary-General, Naeem
U.Hasan, and chaired by the leader of the Sri Lankan delegation, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Minister
of Housing, Construction and Public Utilities.
In his inaugural address, the Minister highlighted the ongoing programmes of his country in poverty
alleviation and housing. In this context, he stated that these programmes were aimed at creating a
balanced human development in low income settlements in Sri Lanka in the future. The Minister
added that the objective of the shelter policy in his country is to cater to the present and future
generations and also to fulfill the nation's infrastructure needs in the context of a rapidly changing
demographic, economic and social environment. The leaders of delegations of all Member States
presented their country statements in which they emphasised the issues and concerns of Member
States in the area of urban development and human settlements in the region.
They also shared their views on the two overall themes of Habitat II Conference i.e.
(i) Adequate Shelter for All, and
(ii) Sustainable Human Settlements Development in an Urbanising World.
The SAARC SecretaryGeneral in his statement drew the attention of the Conference to various initiatives taken by SAARC in the area of human settlements development. While highlighting that a fifth of the world's population live in the region, he expressed the hope that the deliberations of the Conference, particularly the Colombo Resolution on Human Settlements would provide a positive contribution to the outcome of the Habitat II Conference and help to improve the living environment of the peoples in the region. The Colombo Resolution on Human Settlements adopted by the Ministers incorporates views of Member States on major issues and concerns before the Habitat II Conference. The key areas identified by the Ministers relate to eradication of poverty, creation of an enabling environment for human settlements development, development of a sustainable human settlements approach in an increasingly urbanising world, and capacity building and institutional management. The Resolution also highlights those areas in which cooperation and coordination among SAARC Member States as well as at global level should be further strengthened.Recognising the critical importance of the issues related to urbanisation and housing in the region, the Conference felt that there is a need to institutionalise the process of regional cooperation and consultation in the field of shelter and human settlements within the SAARC framework. While considering the Colombo Resolution, discussions were also held on the relevant sections of the draft Global Plan of Action of the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II). The Colombo Resolution on Human Settlements has been subsequently forwarded to the SAARC Secretariat of the HabitatII Conference as the collective input from SMRC Member States to the Conference.
TECHNICAL COMMITTEE ON WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT HELD IN NEW
DELHI
The Tenth Meeting of the SAARC Technical Committee on Women in Development participated
by all Member States was held in New Delhi on 2829 February 1996. The meeting was
inaugurated by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development of India, Ms. Vimla
Verma. In her inaugural address, the Minister, highlighted that SAARC had through the projection
of a collective SAARC position at the Beijing Conference, focused attention on urgent concerns of
the region on such issues as eradication of poverty; mainstreaming of gender perspective; political,
economic and social empowerment of women; women's access to health, education and nutrition;
elimination of violence against women and girl children as well as survival, protection and
development of the girl child.
The meeting was chaired by Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development of India, A.K.Sinha. The SAARC Secretariat was represented by Director, Ms. Kunzang C. Namgyel.The Committee, during its twoday meeting, considered several issues of importance for the development of women and children, particularly the GirlChild. It reviewed the progress made in the implementation of the Plan of Action for Women and decided that in order to make the exercise more feasible, the review, henceforth, would be carried out biannually. The Committee, while reviewing the SAARC Decade Plan of Action for the GirlChild (19912000 A.D) noted that the Eighth SAARC Summit had directed that a comprehensive middecade review of the implementation of the Plan be prepared for submission to the Ninth Summit. In this context they discussed the common format designed for the purpose and decided on the methodology for completing its work within the timeframe.
The Committee noted that the Workshop scheduled to be held in New Delhi in September 1996 specifically to address this issue would be the forum at which this matter would be taken up.While discussing the followup of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, Member States highlighted the steps being taken by their respective countries to implement the decisions and commitments in the Platform of Action adopted at the Beijing Conference. They noted that more detailed discussions would take place at the SAARC Workshop scheduled to be held in New Delhi in 1997 on the subject.The Committee discussed issues relating to the particularly vulnerable group of girl children in the region i.e. GirlChildren in Especially Difficult Circumstances (GCEDC) and approved the methodology for the preparation of a Regional Overview.
As directed by the Eighth SAARC Summit, the Overview alongwith specific recommendations to address the problems faced by these GirlChildren would be presented to the Heads of State or Government at the Ninth Summit. The meeting also discussed matters relating to the publication of the fourth issue of the SAARC Solidarity Journal and decided that the theme of the next issue would be "Women in the Informal Sector". It also decided that the issue would be brought out to coincide with the Ninth SAARC Summit. The meeting drew up the Calendar of Activities for 1996, which included three workshops to be held in India, Maldives and Pakistan respectively. The Eleventh Meeting of the Committee would be held in India during the last quarter of 1996.
MEETINGS IN MARCH
Following is the tentative schedule of activities to be held in March 1996:
# 78 Third Meeting of Governing Board of SMRC Documentation Centre (SDC), Male'
# 12-14 Fifth Meeting of Governing Board of SAARC Tuberculosis Centre (STC),Kathmandu.
# 12-14 Seminar on Enhanced Role in NGOs in Rural Development, Islamabad.
# 14-15 Meeting of IGG on Trade Libralisation to initiate the Second Round of Trade Negotiations, Colombo
# 14-15 Fifth South West Asia Symposium, Tokyo (to be financed under Componentl of SAARCJapan Special Fund)
# 17-28 Technical Training and Skills Development, Islamabad (SAVE TV programme to be financed under SAARCJapan Special Fund)
# 19-20 Thirteenth Meeting of Technical Committee on Science and Technology, Islamabad .
# 21-29 Familiarisation Tour in Sri Lanka (under Technical Committee on Tourism).
# 25 TwoWeek Training Programme on Transmitter Engineering and Modulation System, Islamabad (SAVE Radio programme to be financed under SAARCJapan Special Fund)
# 27-28 Meeting of Experts in the Field of Primary Health Care, Islamabad.
# 29-30 Second Meeting of Chairpersons of the Technical Committees (MCTC), SMRC Secretariat, Kathmandu.
SECRETARY GENERAL'S ROUND OF MEETINGS SAARC
SecretaryGeneral, Naeem U. Hasan during his visit to Colombo to attend the SAARC Housing
Ministers Conference during the last week of February 1996, called on the following dignitaries in
Colombo:-
-Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike;
- Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lakshman Kadirgamar;
- Minister of Internal and External Trade, Commerce and Food, Kinsley T. Wikramaratne;
- Minister of Housing, Construction and Public Utilities, Nimal Siripala de Silva;
- Minister of Youth Affairs, Sports and Rural Development, D.M.S.B. Dissanayake;
- Minister of Media, Tourism and Aviation, Darmasiri Senanyake; and
- Minister of Labour and Vocational Training, Mahinda Rajpakse.
During his meeting with the Prime Minister, the Secretary-General apprised her of recent developments in SAARC, particularly the ongoing efforts of the organisation in the area of poverty eradication and economic cooperation and trade in the region. Similarly, the SecretaryGeneral while meeting with the Ministers, had extensive discussions on SAARC related issues and exchanged views on matters of interest to the region. The SecretaryGeneral also met the Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, R.C.A. Vandegert and had extensive discussions on all important SAARC matters.
SAARC WORKSHOP ON FORMULATION, MONITORING AND
IMPLEMENTATION OF LEGISLATION ON INFANT MILK SUBSTITUTES AND
RELATED MATTERS
A SAARC Workshop on Formulation, Monitoring and Implementation of Legislation on Infant
Milk Substitutes and Related Matters was held in Kathmandu from 9 to 11 February 1996. The
Workshop attended by representatives from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka,
considered a draft SAARC Model Code for protection of breast feeding and young child nutrition
in the SAARC region.Participants in the Workshop finalised the draft for consideration by the
Technical Committee on Health, Population Activities and Child Welfare scheduled to be held in
New Delhi from 30 April to 2 May 1996. The proposed Code incorporates concrete suggestions
for popularising breast feeding and specific steps to be taken by the Member Countries.
SAARC Newsletter is published monthly, which reports on the activities of the Association. Its contents may be reproduced without permission, although an acknowledgement would be appreciated.
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