Meetings of AUICK Committees

CONTENTS

1. International Advisory Committee
2. Joint Meeting
3. Domestic Advisory Committee
4. Visit to The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

1. International Advisory Committee

Annual Meeting, 5-6 November, 2006

From 5 to 6 November 2006, the AUICK International Advisory Committee （IAC） held an annual meeting in Kobe.

The meeting opened with welcoming remarks by Dr. Hirofumi Ando, President of AUICK, that the Secretariat would like to receive from IAC useful suggestions and advice in implementing the AUICK program as efficiently and effectively as possible. It was followed by remarks by Dr. G. Giridhar, Director of CST in Bangkok and UNFPA Representative in Thailand, who attended the meeting representing Mr. Kunio Waki, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA.

Under the chair of Dr. Gayl D. Ness, the morning session was mainly devoted to the discussion on the review of the activities undertaken in 2006, and the afternoon session was focussed on the annual work plan for 2007 and the direction of the project for 2008-2011. The IAC members made the following suggestions and recommendations:

1. The qualifications for workshop participants should be specified further and IAC members should be utilized to a greater extent in the selection process including the consultation with the concerned Mayors. The IAC members should meet them to discussing the suitability of workshop participant nominations as well as the performance of the former workshop participants. The IAC members also recognized the difficulties in selecting appropriate workshop participants, and congratulated the Secretariat for the excellent job it has done;
2. Qualifications include the capacity of the nominee to share information and experience with their colleagues;
3. To supplement the monitoring work of the AUICK Secretariat, the local UNFPA offices and the local university or research institutions should be mobilized;
4. The Action Plan Strategy has been an excellent innovation and should be continued. It should also be more pragmatic and implementable for the participants. The participants should be adequately notified that Action Plans will be expected, without being given rigid frameworks before the workshop. They should also be encouraged to consult with the previous workshop participants from the same city. For this purpose, the establishment of an “Alumni Association” of workshop participants was proposed;
5. There was a specific suggestion from Dr. Giridhar that the Action Plans should not be forgotten as a useful monitoring too in themselves and that the concerned Mayors should approach more proactively the local UNFPA Offices for support to implement the Action Plans. Formal request letters from the Mayors to local UNFPA Offices would be very helpful. He also proposed that he would inform the UNFPA regional planning meeting in Bangkok the following week of the uniqueness and achievements of the AUICK project;
6. It was also suggested that AUICK organize briefing sessions on its unique work for UNFPA representatives at regional meetings. There could also be support from the UNFPA Country Support Team (CST) for the preparation of case studies;
7. While the information activities are viewed very positively, the IAC suggested that AUICK should go “beyond the web-based database” to disseminate information more widely through such means as the preparation of articles based on case studies by IAC members for publication in the local newspaper and the dissemination of more copies of the Newsletter to workshop participants so that they will share it with many colleagues. IAC also suggested that a separate small publication on best case practices be prepared. Review of the data in line with MDGs and ICPD Program of Action was also suggested；
8. The MIS projects (or the City University Partnership, CUP), as part of the mainstreaming exercise, should first be extended to other cities within the same country and then to neigh- boring countries； and
9. Concerning the workshop topic, in view of the recent tsunami crisis in Asian countries, a suggestion was made to organize a workshop on emergency medical service or link reproductive health service to the efforts of “crisis management.”

Participants

IAC Members
Prem P. Talwar
Adjunct Professor, University of North Carolina (India)
Haryono Suyono
Former Minister Coordinator for People Welfare and Poverty Alleviation (Indonesia)
Krasae Chanawongse
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs (Thailand)
Gayl D. Ness
Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan (USA)
Garimera Giridhar
Representative, UNFPA Thailand and Director of UNFPA CST in Bangkok (Representing Mr. Kunio Waki, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA)

AUICK Secretariat
Hirofumi Ando, President
Yoshikane Fujimoto, Executive Director:
Nobuyuki Morimoto, Deputy Executive Director
Yuko Yamaji, Staff
Midori Sumiyoshi, Staff

2. Joint Meeting

On 6 November 2006, AUICK held a Joint Meeting of its three committees: Executive Committee (EC), International Advisory Committee (IAC)., and Domestic Advisory Committee (DAC). This was the first attempt to create an opportunity for all the committee members to gather and have discussion on the direction of AUICK’s new project.

The Joint Meeting was officially opened with a remark by Mr. Tatsuo Yada, Chairman of AUICK. He stated that 2007 would be critical for AUICK, as it is the final year of the present project, and the main theme of the meeting would be development of the new concept for the coming 4 year term.

First, Mr. Fujimoto, Executive Director of AUICK, briefed the achievements attained from 2004 to 2006 under the current project for the years 2004-2007, and then explained the concept paper on the direction of AUICK project for the years 2008-2011, which was adopted by the annual meeting of IAC. The concept paper features the further development of mainstreaming of the AUICK program into UNFPA country programs, through the idea of City-University Partnership (CUP), which is most effective way to tackle with the emerging urban population issues. The mainstreaming exercise is in progress in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, and will be further extended to other AACs.

Dr. Kojiro Niino, Chairman of EC, expressed great pleasure in having an opportunity to exchange ideas and opinions on AUICK activities among the members of the different committees. He also expressed great respect to IAC members for having made much effort to realize project goals. Then, Dr. Hirofumi Ando, President of AUICK, facilitated the discussion.

Main points of the discussion are:

To facilitate local universities will be important for local governments to set up model cases to analyze           relationship between population and urban issues, as universities have all the necessary skills for data         collecting and analyzing. This is why the concept “CUP” came up.

In association with City-University Partnership, there should be a framework in which Japanese                         lecturers/researchers can be involved in the AUICK projects.

The more concrete explanation on the effectiveness of the AUICK project should be given to the public         who can understand it through written reports only.

It is necessary to make every effort to publicize AUICK’s activities to the public so that people will be able       to understand the importance of AUICK projects and we will be able to attract their strong support.

In terms of publication, the Secretariat has made an excellent website, which is accessed around the world    every day. It is already well-made but still has room for improvement, especially to attract more Japanese      viewers who cannot read English.

AUICK holds an open forum on various themes as part of the workshop program every year. More than        100 people including high school students attend the forum, and exchange ideas and opinions with                workshop participants. This is one of the best opportunities for AUICK to promote its works. The secretariat    is expected to make publicity statements easier to understand so as to attract more people to the open          forum.

In terms of substantial contribution to the promotion of public welfare, it is necessary to foster experts who       will go between administrative officials and citizens.

Attending Members:

Executive Committee
Kojiro Niino
President, Kobe Institute of Urban Research
Kiyoko Ikegawa
President, Kobe City College of Nursing
Chen LaiXing
Professor, University of Hyogo
Tatsuo Yada
Chairman, AUICK
Hirofumi Ando
President, AUICK
Yoshikane Fujimoto
Executive Director, AUICK

International Advisory Committee
Gayl D. Ness
Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan (USA)
Prem P. Talwar
Adjunct Professor, University of North Carolina (India)
Haryono Suyono
Former Minister Coordinator for People Welfare and Poverty Alleviation (Indonesia)
Krasae Chanawongse
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs (Thailand)
Garimera Giridhar
Representative, UNFPA Thailand and Director of UNFPA CST in Bangkok (Representing Mr. Kunio Waki, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA)

Auditor
Kyoji Ueda
Executive Director, International Affairs Office, International Affairs, Culture and Tourism Bureau, Kobe City Government, and of AUICK

Secretariat
Nobuyuki Morimoto
Deputy Executive Director, AUICK

Note: No member of DAC attended the joint meeting.

3. Domestic Advisory Committee

Annual Meeting, 20 November, 2006

On 20 November 2006, the AUICK Domestic Advisory Committee held an annual meeting at the Office of Institute of Prosocial Research (IPR), Tokyo.

The Secretariat reported the achievements of the current strategic project for 2004-2006, the Annual Project Work Plan (2007) which the Secretariat is scheduled to submit to UNFPA shortly, and the concept of the next project for 2008-2011 to be reviewed by the UNFPA officials involved in 2007.

Mr. Shinyasu Hoshino remarked that since AUICK’s approach to help solve the urban problems through information and personnel network among Asian medium-sized cities is quite unique and effective, AUICK should develop an successful model of urban management in AUICK Associate Cities, and disseminate it to the other cities in the Asian countries.

Attending Mambers:

Shinyasu Hoshino
President, Institute of Prosocial Research

4. Visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

After the meeting of the AUICK Domestic Advisory Committee, the Secretariat members visited the office of the Global Issues Cooperation Division, International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and met with Director Takeshi Osuga and Ms. Chieko Tatsumi.

The Secretariat briefed the MOFA officials on AUICK activities and the concept of the next AUICK project for the years 2008-2011, and asked the MOFA officials for their continued support.

The MOFA officials commended the work of AUICK as a unique strategic effort help medium-sized cities in Asia and agreed to support it as much as possible. They shared the concern of the AUICK about the “countrification” of regional projects in 2008 that it my delay the implementation of inter-country activities unless its procedures are clearly defined and communicated to the concerned parties.