The year's first regional town hall meeting in Guba defines priorities of the new poverty reduction strategy for the region

Guba, 13-14 April 2006 - Azerbaijan's northern city of Guba hosted the first town-hall meeting of the year to discuss the achievements of the 2003-2005 State Programme for Poverty Reduction and Economic Development (SPPRED) and define the priorities for the region of the new 10-year State Programme for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development (2006-2015) to be officially launched later this year.

The meeting brought together officials from the several government ministries, local authorities and civil society organizations from Guba, Gusar, Devechi Siazan and Khachmaz districts and representatives of international organisations such as ADB, UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA.

The Head of the SPPRED Secretariat Mr.Mehman Abbas announced that in contrast to SPPRED, the new 10-year poverty reduction programme will be mainly financed by the Government and to a lesser degree by international organizations. He stressed the linkage of the new State Programme to the Millennium Development Goals. According to him, local poverty reduction activities should be linked to the country's international commitments deriving from signing the Millennium Declaration and accepting the MDGs. "Good governance and adherence to European democratic standards are important contributors to poverty reduction. That is why Azerbaijan adopted an additional, ninth Millennium Development Goal on good governance", announced Mr. Abbas. "Good governance is the key for the success of the State Programme in all areas". Underlining the importance of international development cooperation, he spoke in favour of bringing into the country international experience in poverty reduction.

Senior adviser to the UN Resident Coordinator Mr. Shahin Panahov in his welcoming remarks spoke of how the UN System organizations operating in Azerbaijan were cooperating with the Government in various working groups in the process of the preparation of new State Programme by contributing with UN vision papers on each MDG.

The participants of the two-day meeting worked in four sector groups on Entrepreneurship Development, Environment, Health and Education.

The Entrepreneurship group outlined such priorities as expansion of financial resources/credits and information services to entrepreneurs, simplification of enterprise registration procedure, organization of recycling of solid waste, etc. The Environment Group underlined the necessity of protecting forests and applying new types of alternative energy. The Education Group recommended the improvement of quality of education through teachers training schemes and that of material and technical base of rural schools by providing communications and other modern equipment. The Health Group dwelled on issues of medical insurance, family planning and reproductive health services, widening of the network of health centres and strengthening of anti-tuberculosis measures in the countryside. The SPPRED Secretariat assured that that the recommendations of the meeting would be considered when finalizing the new State Programme for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development.

The meeting was also successful from the gender point of view. It represented an improved gender balance among the participants (58 per cent male and 42 per cent female) in comparison with last year's meeting in this region in which only a few women participated.


For more information contact:
Mr. Namig Heydarov
Expert on Civil Society Participation
Secretariat for the State Programme on Poverty Reduction and Economic Development
Tel.: +99412 599 00 47