GFDD, FUNGLODE and UN Association of the Domican Republic Promote UN Secretary General Report

GFDD, FUNGLODE, The Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic, the UN system in the DR and the UN Association of the DR organized the conference “Analysis of the UN secretary general’s report: A broader concept of liberty.” The objective of this conference was to promote the knowledge exchange around the upcoming UN reform, included in the proposal submitted by the UN Secretary General, Kofi
Annan. A large audience, including delegates from universities and colleges, public sector, embassies and international organizations actively shared their opinions and proposals during the debate.

The members of the panel included Mr. Niki Fabianci, UNDP representative and resident coordinator of the UN agencies, Ambassador Erasmo Lara, representative of the Dominican Republic to the UN, Ambassador
Michel Cohen, official in charge of the division UN-OAS, Cristina Aguiar, Director of the Diplomatic School of the Dominican Republic and Pilar Sandoval, Executive Director of the UN Association of the Dominican Republic (UNA-RD).

Mr. Fabianci presented a summary of the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, entitled “A broader concept of Liberty”. The summary included a brief account of the report’s main priorities which include:
national strategies, funding for development, commerce and debt relief. During his intervention, Mr. Fabianci called the Dominicans to “work towards accomplishing the Millennium Development Goals”. He also argued that the DR could accomplished the MDG by 2015 “only if all of us break with the routine and push ourselves to accomplish them.”

In his intervention, Ambassador Erasmo Lara, highlighted the divergent points
that have prevailed among different institutions of multilateral cooperation and among their different Member States. He mentioned that “there are not mechanisms to prioritized areas for financing, neither there is coordination among the different UN agencies that work towards development, such as the IMF, World Bank, etc.” Pilar Sandoval, Executive Director of UNA-RD highlighted the important participation of more than 2,000 representatives of non governmental
organizations during the discussion meetings for the UN reform that took place in June in New York City.

The Secretary General’s report will be discussed by the General assembly in September of 2005. In this session, the UN will celebrate its 60th anniversary.

The coordination of this type of seminars and conference are part of GFDD and FUNGLODE’s commitment of raise the level of discussion and
dialogue around key areas pertaining to the social, political and economic development of the Dominican Republic and the Americas.