The Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA), Mr. Bader Omar Al Dafa, heads today to participate in the high level symposium on “Trends in Development Cooperation: South-South and Triangular Cooperation and Aid Effectiveness“organized by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on 19-20 January 2008 in Cairo.

The meeting, which opens at 9:30 AM on Saturday 19 January, will be attended by UN deputy Secretary-General, Ms Asha-Rose Migiro, alongside high-ranking officials from the United Nations, as well as concerned ministries and governmental institutions in a number of UN member countries.

The Executive Secretary gives an address on South-South Cooperation on the second day of the meeting, which aims at discussing development cooperation experiences, the newest trends in South-South and Triangular Cooperation, and the quality of international aids framework.

The meeting is part of the preparations for the Development Cooperation Forum (DCF), whose first meeting will convene during 2008 in New York, to improve the effectiveness of the international development cooperation system. DCF is expected to become a principal mechanism for global dialogue and policy review of key development cooperation issues.

UN-ESCWA is one of the five UN Regional Commissions. It is comprised of 13 member countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Its objective is to support economic and social cooperation among the countries of the region and promote the development process in order to achieve regional integration.