Beyond the Year of Development: What Now? | |
About the Conference
 | Finnish Parliament - Plenary |
The Annual Conference of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank, now in its sixth edition, will bring together some 150 parliamentarians from 96 countries with representatives from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral organizations, academia, civil society, media and the private sector. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, and WTO Director General Pascal Lamy have confirmed their participation (Lamy by direct video link). Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will address the meeting by direct video link from Jakarta.The conference objectives are to identify what parliamentarians can do to promote action on pressing development issues, and to help strengthen the accountability and transparency of international financial institutions. During this 'Year of Development', poverty reduction has dominated the global policymaking agenda as never before. The Helsinki gathering, titled 'Beyond the Year of Development: What Now?', comes four months after the G8 leaders' summit in Gleneagles, a few weeks after the UN World Summit in New York, and just ahead of the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong on the Doha Development Agenda. The outcomes of these summits -- aid effectiveness, trade, climate change, Africa, debt relief -- will top the agenda in Helsinki.  | Parliament of Finland |
In addition to Wolfowitz, Lamy, and Yudhoyono, speakers in Helsinki will include Mary Robinson, Executive Director, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative and former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Zackie Achmat, Chairman, Treatment Action Campaign, a leading South African HIV/AIDS activist; David Nussbaum, Chief Executive, Transparency International; and Hilde Johnson, Minister for International Development, Norway (until October 18). Several top officials from the World Bank, the IMF, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the UN and the OECD will participate, including Richard Manning, Chair of OECD's Development Assistance Committee. The annual conference doubles as PNoWB’s general assembly. The Network will review the progress report of its activities since the last annual meeting in February 2004 and elect a new board. Hosted by the Parliament of Finland, on October, 21-23 2005, the conference is organized by PNoWB, in collaboration with the World Bank, the Finnish Parliament and Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Read 'The Green Shoots of Global Democracy?' , an article on the 2003 annual conference.
Photos: Joanna Moorhouse, Matti Björkman
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