RI to host 6th EAP Ministerial meeting

JAKARTA: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) named Indonesia as the host of its sixth East Asia and Pacific (EAP) Ministerial Consultation meeting next month.

The meeting will discuss ways to improve children's welfare in the East Asia-Pacific region for the coming decade. Bali will host the meeting from May 5 through May 7.

"What the EAP agree to in Bali, the consensus, will form the basis for UNICEF's efforts in Indonesia and throughout the region," UNICEF said in a statement on Monday.

It said the meeting would focus on four development issues facing the region: nutrition, maternal and neonatal mortality, commercial sexual exploitation of children and trafficking, and HIV/AIDS.

UNICEF has voiced concern over Indonesia's poor record in each of the four issues.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri will open the meeting and Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi will deliver the keynote speech. --JP