Member States & Bureau
UNFF2 Meeting Summary - 3-4 March 2002

Minutes of the fourth meeting of the UNFF2 Bureau
UNFF Secretariat, DC-2 Building, New York

The Bureau discussed the following issues:

1. Provisional organization of work for the second session, including matters related to the opening session
2. High-level ministerial segment
3. Expected outputs of the deliberations
4. Review of the informal consultations on the establishment of expert groups, held on 1 March 2002
   Preparations of the multi-stakeholder dialogue, and
5. Other business
6. Part II: Monday, 4 March 2002, 8:30 – 9:30 AM

PART I: Sunday, 3 March 2002 (9:30 AM – 12:30 PM)

1. Provisional organization of work for UNFF2

The Bureau reviewed the proposed organization of work and decided the following:

• Due to the pending procedural matter regarding the election of Bureau member from Asian Group and that of the Chairman, it was agreed that Mr. Desai would open the session and call for election
• Invite the President of ECOSOC to make a statement during the opening session.
• Hold a (joint) working group session in the afternoon session of 4 March to continue the discussion on the terms of reference for the three ad hoc expert groups under the agenda item 4(e) intersesional work. Ms. Chaves would chair this session.
• Reschedule the preparations for the high-level segment (agenda item 5) for Tuesday, 5 March in a (joint) working group session. Mr. Anaedu would chair this session.
• Due to the limited time available on the opening session delegations would be encouraged to make country statements during the Ministerial segment on 14 March 2002.
• Confirmed the division of work among the Bureau members: Mr. Hossein Moeini Meybodi – Chairman of Working Group 1; Mr. Ositadinma Anaedu – Chairman of Working Group 2; and Ms. Patricia Chaves – Rapporteur.

2. High-level ministerial segment

The Bureau would suggest the Colombiam Mission to arrange a meeting between Minister Juan Mayr Maldonado and the Bureau to brief him and discuss about the Ministerial segment. Minister mayr is scheduled to arrive in New York on Monday, 11 March.

Regarding the dialogue between the ministers and heads of CPF member organizations, the Bureau agreed to focus the dialogue on four critical issues, each of which will be facilitated by some introductory remarks from Ministers and 2 - 3 CPF member organizations. The Bureau would explore with some Ministers to see their availability and willingness to make the introductory remarks for each of the critical issues.

Regarding ministerial deliberations the draft Ministerial message sent out by Mr. Øistad on 29 January 2002, was received positively by many countries. The Bureau suggested the Secretariat to revise the draft text based on the comments received on Mr. Øistad’s draft. The status of the draft would be non-paper, and would be used only to catalyse the deliberations on Tuesday, 5 March.

3. Expected outputs of the deliberations

The Bureau considered the modalities for the decisions to be taken by UNFF2. It was noted that efforts should be made to avoid producing new proposals for action. In this regard, the Bureau considered preparing draft decisions in two categories: (a) for endorsement by ECOSOC, and for (b) information to ECOSOC of the decisions taken by UNFF2. It was noted that delegations should be consulted on the modality at the beginning of deliberations on substantive issues (“Elements”) in the Working Groups. How to address common items and means of implementations in conjunction with the substantive issues would require further consideration.

4. Review of the informal consultations on the establishment of expert groups, held on 1 March 2002

After reviewing the progress of the informal consultations on the terms of reference of three ad hoc expert groups, the Bureau recognized the challenges ahead in the establishment of those expert groups. The challenges seemed to be both on composition and working modalities as well as on the specific tasks of the expert groups.

5. Other matters

Mr. Øistad requested the Members to encourage their respective regional groups to start working on the nomination of candidates for the new Bureau of UNFF3. He had sent letters to Chairmen of regional groups on 29 January 2002 in this regard. He also informed that Norway would not seek Bureau membership in the new Bureau as it has been serving in it for last two consecutive bureaux.

Mr. Oleg Shamanov from the Russian Mission also informed the Bureau that Russia would not seek membership in the Bureau of UNFF3 because Russia had been serving in the Bureaux of IFF and UNFF for a long time and it would like to encourage other countries from Eastern European region to serve in the Bureau.

At 12:30 PM, due to time constraint, the meeting was adjourned until 8:30 AM tomorrow morning (4 March 2002). In addition, starting from tomorrow evening, the Bureau also decided to convene short meetings everyday after 6 PM to review the day’s work progress and to plan the future actions.

Part II: Monday, 4 March 2002, 8:30 – 9:30 AM

The Bureau decided to revise the proposed organization of work further so that on Friday, 8 March, there would be only one Working Group addressing Agenda Items 3 (a), 3 (b) (iii) – (iv) and 4(h), 4(b) and 4(i) throughout the day. This revised version would be presented to the Forum at the opening session.

The Secretariat presented revised drafts on Ministerial message based on the inputs received from countries and Bureau members, and on the TOR of the expert groups based on the informal discussions of Friday 1 March 2002. The Bureau members provided useful observations and suggestions. The Secretariat would further revise the drafts accordingly and make available the new drafts to the delegations during the day.