To attend int’l conference on climate change
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will arrive in Dhaka this evening on a three-day tour of Bangladesh.
During his stay here, he will attend an international conference on climate change and visit Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training — dedicated to training of UN peacekeepers.
Besides holding meetings with top government and opposition officials and private sector leaders, the UN chief will also meet the family members of some deceased UN peacekeepers, according to a release of the United Nations office in Dhaka.
Ban will travel to Bangladesh as part of his three-country visit to South-East Asia. The two other countries are Thailand and Indonesia.
A key purpose of his tour is to showcase the progress and leadership of these countries in advancing women’s and children’s health in the context of the “Every Woman Every Child” effort he initiated in 2010.
Ban will go to a community clinic in Moulvibazar, where community health workers are being trained in a government-led effort to significantly increase the number of skilled birth attendants.
He will visit a joint project of the government and non-governmental organisation Brac, which illustrates how empowering women through microfinance impacts the health of their communities.
The UN secretary general will stop at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). It developed Oral Rehydration Solution, considered one of the most significant medical breakthroughs of the 20th century.
The hospital affiliated with the centre receives 1,20,000 patients a year, two thirds of whom are children.
Ban will address the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Ministerial Meeting tomorrow at 10:00am at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
Ahead of the UN climate talks in Durban later this month, ministers and representatives of some 30 countries most vulnerable to climate change will gather in Dhaka for the two-day meet aiming to pursue green development and to manifest moral leadership on low-carbon development, said foreign ministry officials.
The UN chief will make a public address at Dhaka University, where he will also receive an honorary degree.
He will leave Dhaka for Bangkok on Wednesday morning.
-With The Daily Star input
