(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Fourth General Meeting between representatives of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the United Nations (UN) System will be convened on 25 January, 2007, at the CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana.

The Meeting will be co-chaired by Her Excellency Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite, Deputy Secretary-General of CARICOM and Mr. Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General.

The forum will be held within the framework of the UN General Assembly Resolution adopted in 2004 during the Assembly’s 59th session. Titled `Cooperation between the United Nations and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM),’ the resolution recommended that the Fourth General Meeting of the two organisations be held to review and appraise progress in the implementation of agreed areas and issues.

In addition to reviewing the actions taken since the Third General Meeting held in New York in April 2004, the meeting is also expected to discuss future CARICOM/UN cooperation in the context of CARICOM’s strategic objectives, namely implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), sustainable development issues and UN reform.

The large UN delegation to the meeting comprises representatives from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), Department of Disarmament Affairs, the Department of Political Affairs, the Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), World Health Organisation/Pan American Health Organisation (WHO/PAHO), International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti.

The Regional bodies that will be represented at the forum are the Caribbean Agricultural Research Development Agency (CARDI), Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD), the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA), the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL), Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI), Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), Caribbean Meteorological Organisation (CMO), Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, and the Universities of the West Indies and Guyana.