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Welcome to a New Session of UNICEF's Executive Board
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September 16, 2002
Welcome to a new session of UNICEF's Executive Board. The period we have selected for this meeting is somehow unusual. We are not only trying to get over the summer days, but we are also going to be in session at the same time the General Assembly is having its general debate. After consultations with the Secretariat, the Conference Committee has duly authorised us to be in session these days. But apart from the procedural questions to be in session, there is also the fact that many of us still have to participate at high level delegations in New York. So we will try to be everywhere at once in order to attend our delegations and the Executive Board with the same interest and intensity.
Dear Executive Board members,
Although this week we don't have a busy agenda, we will have several opportunities to discuss important issues related to UNICEF's work . Soon, Mr. Caillaux will make a general statement on the work planning for the week. However, I would like to give you a preliminary vision on several issues I would like to emphasize, linked to specific matters that we will consider in the next days.
The first issue is related to the informal briefings that have been scheduled. On the presentation made on September 3 we proposed some preliminary ideas on this matter, and some days after we had a Board meeting to take some additional decisions. Accordingly, we have scheduled four informal meetings on the Board's working procedures, the terms of reference for joint visits by the Executive Boards of UNDP and UNICEF, the branding exercise and the mother-to-child AIDS transmission.
The issue on procedures will require only a preliminary meeting to exchange general ideas on the matter. We should remember that at the past meeting it was decided to schedule a meeting in July, which unfortunately was impossible to carry out due to schedule problems. The idea is to take advantage of this week to have this exchange at the most convenient time.
The issue about the terms of reference for joint visits by the Executive Boards is pending of an additional discussion after the visit we made to Viet Nam this year. I understand that the Secretariat has prepared a preliminary document which can be the basis of a discussion about the matter.
Mother-to-child AIDS transmission is perhaps one of the main management challenges that UNICEF has to face and a deep discussion by the Board could substantially help to deal with the dilemmas related to this issue. The matter of the branding exercise, on the other hand, has aroused great interest among Board members, as it was shown at the preliminary session on September 3rd.
The second matter I want to mention here is related to regional events on the margins of the Board. Ambassador Crispin Grey Johnson of Gambia reported to us that he wants to update the Board members about the preparations for of a West Africa subregional meeting to asses the MTSP perspectives from their own point of view. We will listen carefully to his comments.
Let's begin then our work. I would like to give now the floor to the Executive Director.
