The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) will be hosting, for the first time, the spring session of the United Nations Chief Executives Board (CEB), chaired by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, from 7 to 8 April. Meetings will…
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) will be hosting, for the first time, the spring session of the United Nations Chief Executives Board (CEB), chaired by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, from 7 to 8 April. Meetings will take place at the UNWTO Madrid Headquarters and in Segovia, and will address a wide range of issues that are currently on top of the UN agenda.
Thirty chiefs of UN agencies and programmes, among which FAO (Mr. Jacques Diouf, Director General), IAEA (Mr. Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General), ILO (Mr. Juan Somavía, Director General), UNESCO (Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director General), UNIDO (Mr. Kandeh Yumkella, Director General), WHO (Mr. Jong-wook Lee, Director General), ICAO, IFAD, IMO, ITU, UN, UNAIDS, UNCTAD, UNEP, UNFPA, UN-HABITAT, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNWTO, UPU, WMO, WFP, World Bank, WIPO as well as IMF (Mr. Rodrigo Rato, Director General) and the World Trade Organization (Mr. Pascal Lamy, Director General).
“We are very pleased to host the CEB spring session as the smallest and the youngest of the UN specialized agencies,” stressed the UNWTO Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli. He recalled that the UNWTO acquired the status of a UN specialized agency in December 2003, as a consequence of the growing importance of tourism and its recognition by the international community.
Mr. Frangialli said “This is also an honour for Madrid and Spain, since the city has now been referred to along side some of the most renowned cities of the world hosting the major UN institutions, such as New York, London, Geneva, Paris and Rome.”
A series of other events will be held in conjunction with the CEB Spring session, such as the meeting of the High-level Panel of the United Nations System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance and the Environment, initiated by Mr. Annan, with attendance of Prime Ministers of Norway (Mr. Jens Stoltenberg) and Pakistan (Mr. Shaukat Aziz), as well as the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom (Mr. Gordon Brown). The UN Development Group (UNDG), a UN body responsible for technical cooperation, chaired by the UNDP Administrator, Mr. Kemal Dervis, will meet on Saturday, 8 April, in Segovia.
UNWTO will present at the CEB session its initiative of UNTEN – United Nations Tourism Exchange Network, which will coordinate activities of the UN family related to tourism to avoid duplication and maximise synergies among agencies.
Mr. Kofi Annan will meet UNWTO staff at Headquarters on Friday, which will be his second visit to the Organization and the first since it became a UN specialized agency. He first visited the then WTO on 9 April 2002 during his stay in Spain for the UN`s Second World Assembly on Ageing.
The United Nations System Chief Executives Board (CEB) for Coordination – formerly the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) – is the forum which brings the Executive Heads of all Organizations to further coordinate and cooperate on the whole range of substantive and management issues facing the United Nations system. Chaired by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Board meets twice annually. It is composed of the Executive Heads of the member organizations and is assisted by two high level committees, the High Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) and the High level Committee on Management (HLCM).
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