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PRIORITIZATION OF ISSUES:

Perhaps the most important accomplishment of this meeting was the prioritization of issues. The agenda, which was a daunting document, was reduced at the first Plenary. Even before the meeting began, on the weekend before the session, the Bureau met to recommend priorities. This process of "triaging" the issues into those that needed immediate attention and those that could live without attention until after the first COP was done by the Bureau and recommended to the Committee on the first day of this session. Although this schedule was altered by some political special interests, by and large, the priority tasks that the Committee set for itself were manageable and effectively dealt with during the two weeks.

One factor responsible for the prioritization of issues was the role of the Interim Secretariat, both in preparing the background documentation and the reports during the meeting. The quality and efficiency of the Secretariat's work proved to be invaluable and was highly praised by a number of delegations.