News Brief

A regional conference on National Poverty Reduction Strategies in East Asia will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam on December 4–6, 2001. The conference is being jointly organized by the IMF, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). There will be broad-based participation in the conference from Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Mongolia and Vietnam. Delegations from these countries will comprise national and local government officials, representatives of civil society, including NGOs, media and academics.

The regional conference is being organized with three core objectives:

First, to review and exchange experience on the development of poverty reduction strategies in East Asia;

Second, to identify obstacles and challenges countries face in designing and implementing their strategies; and

Third, to derive lessons for the future.

Similar regional conferences will take place in Bolivia and Hungary in addition to the conference held last September in Senegal. The four conferences will generate input for the international conference on national poverty reduction strategies sponsored by the IMF and the World Bank that will take place in Washington D.C. during January 14–17, 2002.