2007 AMR PREPARATIONS
Mobilizing Member States, the UN system as a whole, other major institutional stakeholders, as well as non-governmental organizations and the private sector to join forces in the fight against poverty and hunger was a key determining factor for the success of the 2007 AMR. To stimulate dialogue and engagement around the AMR, a number of preparatory meetings were held.
Informal events of ECOSOC in preparation of the AMR - On 2 April 2007 the Economic and Social Council held a half-day informal event on “Eradicating poverty and hunger – Joining forces to make it happen”. delivered an opening address to the plenary. Renowned policy makers, practitioners and academics were then featured in two parallel roundtables on “Are we making poverty history and “How are we doing in the fight against hunger and malnutrition?” The aim of the roundtables was to assess progress in fighting poverty and hunger and to identify lessons-learned, how we can build on past experience and which approaches merit scaling up to alleviate the plight of those living in extreme poverty.
Country-led regional forum - On 17 -18 May a Latin American and Caribbean Regional Forum in support of the 2007 AMR was held in Brasilia. The meeting, organized by the Government of Brazil in cooperation with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations and the Economic Commission for Latina America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), was a multi-stakeholder event, featuring senior experts who addressed the theme “Key challenges of financing poverty and hunger eradication in Latin America and the Caribbean” . Two roundtables examined emerging trends and challenges in the area of financing for eradication of poverty and hunger, and discussed traditional and innovative sources of financing to eliminate these scourges. The event also featured presentations by governments, civil society and the private sector of best practices for fighting poverty, as well as of new, concrete initiatives in poverty and hunger eradication. The objective of the meeting was to facilitate informed and lively dialogue among stakeholders during the upcoming first AMR. A summary of the discussion was presented during the AMR session in Geneva. More
National multistakeholder meetings in preparation of the voluntary national presentations – Barbados, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Ethiopia and Ghana have volunteered to share their lessons-learned in implementing their national development strategies at the 2007 AMR session in July. To prepare for their national presentations, countries held National Consultative Meetings. The meetings were held as high-level multi-stakeholder dialogues with about 80-100 participants from government, civil society and the private sector. UNDP, the Regional Commissions, the Bretton Woods Institutions, UN system organizations, and other relevant institutions from the country also participated in the meetings. They provided an opportunity for key stakeholders to identify examples of good practices and obstacles faced in the implementation of the national development strategy. More