The fifth South Intellectual Platform Meeting was held successfully. Read the Blog Entry. 

Kindly note this is an invitation-only event

Venue: Château de Bossey, Crans-près-Céligny

Date: 7 February 2009

Please see the details from updated agenda below:

Background

As we progress into 2009, it is imperative to take stock of 2008, and reflect on some of the key issues where South assumed leadership and those where South missed opportunities.

There were several key issues which saw engagement of the South in 2008, including the WTO Doha Round, Poznan Climate Conference, Intellectual Property Development Agenda, Enforcement and Custom Control/Border issues, Accra Action Agenda on Aid Effectiveness, Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development in Doha, Economic Partnership/ Free Trade Agreements, Financial Crisis, and the UNCTAD XII Review, and others. An analysis of the role of the South would reveal valuable lessons on how the South should strategize and draw upon its collective strength to deal with the ongoing and emerging issues in 2009.

South Intellectual Platform Retreat - V

In this context, the South Centre is organizing its fifth workshop of the South Intellectual Platform (SIP) on 7 February 2009 and extending invitation to the Ambassadors of developing countries to the UN Missions in Geneva and their designated colleagues to the same. The SIP series originated in 2006 to bring together experts from the South working on different issues for a brainstorming session on these new and emerging challenges and since then has become a regular activity of the South Centre.

The broad theme of this invitation-only workshop is “REFLECTIONS 2008 – FORESIGHTS 2009.” This brainstorming session will be led under the chairmanship of H.E Mr. Benjamin W. Mkapa, the former President of Tanzania and the current Chairperson of South Centre.

Draft Agenda

 click here to download updated agenda

SIP Retreats are informal session where no formal presentations or papers are presented. All participants are expected to make short contributions in one or more sessions.

Logistics

The workshop will be held at the Ecumenical Institute-Chateau de Bossey, which is just outside Geneva, 45 minutes by car. South Centre has organized a bus for confirmed participants to leave for Château de Bossey (18 kms from Geneva) from Hotel Intercontinental, Geneva at 8:30 am on 7th February 2009. The bus will leave the Chateau de Bossey for Geneva at 6:00 pm.

Contact Details

Mr. Vikas Nath, Coordinator - South Intellectual Platform, nath@southcentre.org Tel: 022 791 8050

Please rsvp your participation to Ms. Xin CUI, cui@southcentre.org  Tel: 022 791 8050

Kindly note this is an invitation-only event.