Hello everyone,
Thanks for the endorsements to represent the Asia Pacific family at the =
CS Bureau meeting in Paris. I was thanking Al, in a one-to-one e-mail =
for writing to the list. It certainly catalysed us into action and to =
me, endorses him in no small way as THE leader of our caucus :o)
FYI, the CSB meeting is scheduled for the 15th to 18th July. They did =
try to initiate a discussion on the potential agenda, but somehow that =
discussion has been quite lukewarm. From Asia Pacific, only YJ and =
myself responded. Our concerns were mainly around the TOR of the CSB, =
the role the CSB seems to be taking around the vetting of events for the =
Summit, and of course, the Civil Society Facility Fund and how exactly =
proposals will be submitted and vetted since they want to set up a =
smaller sub-committee of focal points to screen these. In any case, I'll =
keep you all updated.
In the meantime, I'm glad to see at least responses coming from the =
region to the Draft Declaration and Action Plan even if it's not from =
the Asia Pacific family as a whole. In a sense, we do have time to still =
lobby at the Intersessionals, i.e. we come up with a lobby document, =
succinct with key issues/points to be considered by governments in =
response to the draft declaration and action plan or just as a lobby =
document that highlights key gaps and concerns from this region. Since a =
few of us will be there, I'm recommending this as a possible course of =
action. If the drafting group, Sacha, Gaurab, Serena, Arfa, Mavic, etc. =
from Tokyo can work on this (or even a couple as long as we give them =
the trust to do so), we could still input into the whole process from =
this region. I appreciate the fact that we seem to have great energy and =
synergy when we're face-to-face as Sacha points out and this is indeed =
something I've noticed too. Let's just do what we can.
Thanks again everyone!
Warm regards,
Angela
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