ICAPP Update (10-33)

Dear Members of the Standing Committee,

It is a great privilege to submit the attached report on the results of my visit to the United Nations during Sep. 8 to 10, accompanied by Mr. Suos Yara, Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of the 6th GA of the ICAPP. The purpose of the visit was to deliver the official invitation to the U.N. Secretary General to attend the 6^th GA, submit the results of the ICAPP Conference on Poverty Alleviation held in Kunming, China in July this year and discuss how to further coordinate the activities of the ICAPP and the U.N.

We have met high-level officials in the U.N., including Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Assistant Secretary General Thomas Stelzer, and Permanent Representatives to the U.N. from some Asian countries, including Cambodia, China, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

They all expressed strong support for the ICAPP activities, and welcomed the steady progress the ICAPP has achieved over the last ten years and its growing relevance in the global debate on how to meet the key challenges the world is facing. In this regard, they highly appreciated the Kunming initiative and agreed to circulate the Kunming Declaration on Poverty Alleviation to all members states as a U.N. document. In particular, the UNSG supported the proposal to establish an Asian Anti-poverty Fund, and said it would be necessary for the members of the ICAPP to continue their efforts to successfully implement it.

I am also pleased to report that the U.N. officials agreed to render all the necessary assistance for the proposal to invite the ICAPP as an observer to the General Assembly of the U.N. They, however, pointed out that it was a matter to be decided by member states and advised us to initiate a process so that a resolution to invite the ICAPP as a U.N. observer can be adopted at the General Assembly.

They also recommended that a draft resolution be co-sponsored and submitted to the U.N. General Assembly by as many member states in our region as possible at an earlier date with a view to completing the procedures to obtain the observer status at the 66th General Assembly in 2011.

In this regard, if the SC members agree to this proposal, the Secretariat will soon prepare a draft resolution to be submitted to their respective governments with recommendation to co-sponsor it at
the U.N. General Assembly.

With best regards,

Chung Eui-yong
Secretary General
ICAPP Secretariat
Seoul, Korea
September 29, 2010