UN Millennium Project’s Mission to support Yemen [Archives:2004/763/Local News]

Sana'a (UNDP – 8 August) The ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC), with support from the United Nations and the World Bank in Yemen, is organizing a press conference within the framework of the official visit of a high-level UN mission to Yemen. The mission is to support Yemen in developing a scaled-up MDG-based Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper that is aligned with other national medium and long-term development plans within a unified timeframe. Yemen has been nominated as a pilot country for the Millennium Project, an advisory body of the UN Secretary-General. It is important to note that Yemen's nomination to participate in the Millennium Project gains more importance from the fact that it is the only Arab country to be selected for this project and is one of only eight countries worldwide.
Mr. John McArthur, Manager of the UN Millennium Project, heads the mission to Yemen. The mission is further composed of six senior experts; namely Prof. Tariq Yousef of the Washington-based Georgetown University- who will also be the advisor and focal point for Yemen in the Project, Mr. Abdul Aziz M. Farah- the Regional Advisor of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Ms Eva Weissman- a population expert at UNFPA, Ms Rebecca Dodd- a health expert at the UN World Health Organization (WHO), and Ms. Mi Hua- a water and sanitations expert, as well as Mr. Khalid Abu-Ismail- of UNDP Sub-Regional Resource Facility.
The press conference was held on the first day of a two-day workshop, organized by MoPIC, with UN support, to stimulate discussion among the national thematic working groups that have been designated to prepare an assessment of Yemen's needs in selected development priorities. The purpose of this workshop is to increase the effectiveness of national plans and processes so as to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) by 2015, a commitment that was made by H.E. President Ali Abdullah Saleh at the Millennium Summit in New York in 2000.
During the past two days, the mission has conducted extensive discussions with a number of government bodies, the UN agencies already in Yemen, as well as donors. The mission is expected to conclude its visit to the country on Wednesday, 11 August 2004.
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