U.N. Under Secretary General Anwarul K. Chowdhury

Anwarul K. Chowdhury, under secretary general at the United Nations, on Jan. 20 outlined plans to foster agreement among various international partners attending talks later this month in the Bahamas on ways to improve conditions facing small-island developing states.

“I am working with my colleagues throughout the U.N. system as well as civil society and private sector organizations to come in and support the small islands,” said Chowdhury, who last September was appointed secretary general of the International Ministerial Conference of Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries and Donor Countries and International Financial and Development Institutions on Transit Transport Cooperation. That meeting will be held from Aug. 20 to Sept. 4 in Mauritius.

Briefing reporters in New York on an interregional meeting scheduled to run from Jan. 26 to Jan. 30 in Nassau, Chowdhury, who is of Ban-gladeshi origin, noted the special vulnerabilities of small-island developing states, which often suffer from factors associated with remoteness, size, limited economic opportunities, vulnerability to natural disasters and HIV/AIDS.

When it comes to island nations, “we generally associate our thinking of them with their idyllic natural beauty but we do not consider how fragile their economies are, how fragile their ecosystems are, how vulnerable they are to natural disasters,” said Chowdhury, who is also U.N. High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.

The Nassau conference will consolidate the results of previous regional gatherings with a view to producing a strategy paper for consideration at a meeting in April to finalize preparations for the Mauritius talks.

Chowdhury said he would galvanize participants in the Bahamas event, which will involve not only representatives of small island countries, but also other development partners such as regional organizations and donor states.

“As the secretary general of the conference, I’m trying to have an informal exchange among all stakeholders in the Bahamas to see what each other are thinking of for the Mauritius outcome,” he said.

“So this is intended to really start the dialogue very early in the process.”

With development cooperation facing numerous challenges, he called for a prioritized approach to key points. “We need to focus on issues that are of utmost importance,” he said. “My effort is to get a good outcome which is implementable, which is focused, which gets the partnership ---- and effective partnership ---- of all stakeholders.”

Prior to his current appointment, Chowdhury was ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh to the U.N. His experience in multilateral affairs includes two terms as president of the U.N. Security Council (2000-01), where he headed the council’s first-ever missions to Kosovo and Belgrade.

Chowdhury’s other prominent leadership roles included service as president of the executive board of the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), vice president of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, and chair of the Fifth (Administrative and Budgetary) Committee, U.N. General Assembly.

The under secretary general also led the U.N.’s groundbreaking initiative on culture of peace, chairing the nine-month-long negotiations that produced the landmark document, ‘Declaration and Program of Action on a Culture of Peace,’ adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1999.

Subsequently, he guided efforts resulting in the declaration of the ‘International Decade for the Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World (2001-10).’ In recognition of his many contributions to such causes, Chowdhury had been honored with the U Thant Peace Award and the UNESCO Gandhi Gold Medal for Culture of Peace.