On Monday afternoon, 15 March 2004, the Bureau of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) held a briefing for delegates on preparations for the portion of the 12^th Session of the CSD, which will serve as the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the International Meeting for the 10 year Review of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA +10). The International Meeting is scheduled to be held in Mauritius from 30 August – 3 September 2004.

CSD-12 Vice Chair Bolus Paul Zom Lolo (Nigeria) briefed delegates on the preparations for the three-day PrepCom, which will be held during the first three days of CSD-12, from 14-16 April 2004. He then responded to questions from delegations. Some of the issues covered during the briefing include the following:

• The Secretary-General's report on Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action - A Review of Progress in the Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States is now available on the CSD website: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd12/SGRpt_SIDS.pdf
   

• The Group of 77 and China announced that they have endorsed the AOSIS Strategy Paper, which was adopted at Inter-regional Preparatory Meeting, held in Nassau, the Bahamas, in January 2004. This document will be formally submitted to the CSD Bureau this week and is expected to serve as the basis for negotiations at the PrepCom. This document will be made available to delegations on the CSD www page soon. [Note: In the meantime it can be found at http://www.sidsnet.org/docshare/other/20040206162842_AOSIS_strategy_final_version.pdf]
   

• The CSD Bureau, when it meets on Friday, 19 March, will discuss the possibility of holding informal-informal consultations prior to the PrepCom. It is possible that these consultations could begin as early as next week.
   

• There was concern expressed about the status of the Bureau. The PrepCom is being convened under the CSD-12 Bureau. However, the CSD-13 Bureau, which will be elected on 30 April, currently does not have a mandate to deal with the BPOA +10 preparatory process. The Bureau for the International Meeting will not be elected until the meeting begins in August. Therefore, some delegates were concerned that there would be no Bureau to convene any informal consultations or negotiations after CSD-12 and prior to the International Meeting. Mauritius noted that all regions have been asked to submit nominations for the BPOA+10 Bureau and would it be possible for this Bureau to work informally after the term of the CSD-12 Bureau ends. Vice Chair Lolo commented that delegates at CSD-12 will have to take a decision on what they want the CSD-13 Bureau to do. It is up to CSD-12 to set the mandate for the CSD-13 Bureau on this issue.
   

• Mauritius asked if SIDS-related issues can be addressed during the Ministerial Segment of CSD-12, which will take place from 28-30 April. He noted that some SIDS ministers will only be coming to the Ministerial Segment and will not have had the opportunity to address these issues during the PrepCom two weeks earlier. He requested that the Bureau consider this at its 19 March meeting.

The Chair concluded the briefing, noting that the Bureau would address these issues on 19 March.