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INTER-AGENCY MEETING

The Secretariat convened a meeting of agency representatives after the PrepCom adjourned Tuesday morning. During this meeting, the agencies discussed the preparation of a new document that will summarize and highlight activities in the UN system relevant to small island developing States. The first attempt at such an exercise, A/CONF.167/PC/6, met with sharp criticism from many of the delegates in that it was too general and did not include reports from all of the relevant UN agencies. This new document is expected to have a sharper focus on the particular problems of SIDS and how they are being addressed within the UN system. Some agency representatives expressed concern, however, that it would be impossible to collect and collate all of the necessary information in such a short period of time. Nevertheless, the Secretariat hopes to make this document available to governments in January so that they will be able to study it in advance of the Barbados Conference.