10th Conference of the Forum to be Held in Vientiane June 2001

Representatives of the governments, oversight organizations, and international and domestic NGOs from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam met this past June in Vientiane, Lao PDR to prepare for the next international conference of the Forum on Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

At the planning meeting the theme was selected of “Improving Partnership for Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development.” The draft agenda was approved. In response to comments after the previous conference in Phnom Penh, this agenda allows for more substantial discussion time after panels as well as longer sectoral group working meetings.

Over the next several months the draft agenda will be reviewed for further comment and fine-tuning by the international development and academic exchange community and their host country counterparts. The Forum coordinators also welcome suggestions of possible speakers and facilitators for the panels as well as coordinators for the sectoral groups. Lao authorities have confirmed that the conference will be held in Vientiane in June of 2001, but the exact dates probably will not be set until early in the new year.

The conference is designed to be a working meeting of international NGOs, foundations, universities, and businesses that have already recognized programs with their counterparts and government officials from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Similar institutions with a serious interest in beginning programs of humanitarian aid, development, exchange and investment are invited to apply for observer status at the conference.

The Forum is a loose network of international not-for-profit and business institutions having programs of cooperation with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. After holding eight conferences in the US beginning in 1989, the Forum met in the region for the first time in January of 1999 in Phnom Penh, bringing together 450 representatives of international and host country organizations and institutions. The Fund for Reconciliation and Development provides administrative support for the Forum.

The initial planning stage of the 10th Forum Conference has been made possible by a generous grant from Oxfam America.

Please forward comments and suggestions to Susan Hammond, Conference Coordinator. Email frdev@msn.com , Fax 212-367-4366, Phone 212-367-4220, or mail to Forum on Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, c/o Fund for Reconciliation and Development, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 727, New York, NY 10115

Draft Agenda

Sunday

12:00 p.m. Registration [Conference Hall]

    [optional] Sight seeing

Set-up of displays of development projects, handicrafts, and information tables in Conference Hall

Monday

a.m. and p.m. [optional] Site visits (NGO and mass organization projects, government offices, universities))

9:00 a.m. Displays open to non-conference participants (until 11:30 a.m.)

12:00 p.m. Registration

12:00 Display opens

5:30 p.m. Reception

7:00 p.m. Dinner

Tuesday

8:30 a.m. Welcome by organizers

9:00 a.m. Lao Country Plenary

10:30 a.m. Coffee break

11:00 a.m. Sectoral Groups I (introductions, agenda setting)

12:30 p.m. Lunch

2:00 p.m. Panels I

Panel A: Implementation of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child at provincial and local level.

Panel B: Building effective cooperation between humanitarian and development organizations and government structures.

Panel C: The role of women and their challenges in social and economic development

Panel D: Social Responsibility of Business in poverty alleviation and sustainable development

3:30 p.m. Coffee break

4:00 p.m. Panel questions and discussion

5:00 p.m. Free time

Dinner on own

7:30 p.m. Cultural Program (open to family members or additional staff of organizations attending the Forum)