The meetings will be held at the UN in New York Monday April 11 - Friday April 22, 2005

The Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development, Mr. John Ashe, Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda, chaired today a briefing on CSD-13, to the Permanent Missions to the UN, Secretariat staff, representatives of intergovernmental (IGOs), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the media, in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. This commission’s Vice-Chairs are from: Azerbaijan, Egypt, Germany, and Korea.

- Mr. Ashe announced changes in the program for the first week April 11-15, 2005. The planned three half day sessions intended as Regional Perspective Sessions, will be merged into one half day session on the afternoon of April 11, 2005. In the discussion following his announcement it became clear that the time gained will be devoted to global aspects. We feel that this could be a very welcome change.

- Mr. Ashe announced that the Bureau agreed that the thematic discussions on water, sanitation, human settlements, be moved up in schedule and that there be a water/sanitation combined session, a session on global water and sanitation governance, and an expanded inter-linkage session on all three themes based on the policy options and practical measures that have been put forward by the Chair’s IPM text (the Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting of CSD-13, held February 28-March 4, 2005, in New York, and chaired by Mr. Ashe). Again, the idea here to address issues that require a concerted global effort.

- Mr. Ashe announced that the programme for the second week remains unchanged - topic-wise integrated ministerial interventions “turning political commitments into action”, a panel discussion on MDGs, disaster prevention and response, and the dialogue session with UN agencies and UN recognized Major Groups.

- On April 18, 2005, there will be a Panel Of Finance Ministers for Development Cooperation, including Ministers from South Africa and Norway. Also, this week will be made available a report prepared by the World Bank and a paper from UNCTAD. One of the additional speakers will be Mr. Camdesus.

- The output of CSD-13 will be a summary of the High-Level Segment, a summary of the Regional Perspective session, of the policy options and practical measures, and and of the interactive discussions with Major Groups, the Partnership Fair and the Learning Center. The only negotiated output will be the policy decisions on practical measures and options to expedite implementation. (As this is the first year after the reorganization of the CSD, it is important to see how these outputs can help next year’s deliberation that will have to lead to a series of practical decisions on Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements - PJ).

As an observer, I had the feeling that the UN Secretary-General’s recommendation to reduce the importance of regional groups and strengthen the importance of a global approach to debates, as exemplified in his suggested change in the UN dealing with Human Rights issues, has found its way also to the CSD. It is welcome that global issues on water will be allowed to the CSD discussion because these must result in opening the door to the topic of climate change that has an immense impact on water.