Udenrigsudvalget 2008-09
URU Alm.del Bilag 159
Offentligt
Foreign Affairs Committees ofDenmark, Finland, Iceland,Norway and SwedenCopenhagen, 5 February 2009
Dear Friends,The Nordic Offices of UNDP, UNFPA and WFP and the Nordic National Committees ofUNICEF kindly address the Foreign Affairs Committees of the five Nordic countries.As you are well aware, it is an important objective for the Nordic UN liaison offices to enhancethe relationship between the UN and the national Parliaments in the Nordics and - to this end– to increase the understanding among Nordic Parliamentarians of the impact of the work theUN undertakes.In the period from 2004-2008 four joint UN field trips to developing countries have thereforebeen undertaken and participating parliamentarians have found the field visits to be avaluable way of gaining a first hand insight into the work of the UN in the field.For January 2009 a joint field visit was being arranged to Liberia but in the end the trip wascancelled due to lack of participation from three of the five national Foreign AffairsCommittees. On this background and because arranging such a trip on the part of the UNCountry Team in the host country is quite resource consuming, we kindly approach theForeign Affairs Committee on the issue of the future of such UN field trips.The Nordic UN Liaison Offices would like to stress that we have found the four trips to be veryvaluable for the collaboration between the UN and the national Parliaments and that we havereceived much feed-back from participating parliamentarians on the positive outcome theyhave gained from the trips. We would therefore be very pleased to continue to arrange forsuch trips.We would, however, be grateful to receive feedback from the Foreign Affairs Committees ifthis annual January trip continues to be an undertaking that the Committees will plan for andprioritize to take part in – in terms of allocating time and funds for the undertaking?We would also be pleased to receive any ideas for improvements of the format for these trips,which could further increase the interest of Foreign Affairs Committee members in
participating; for instance ideas related to the selection of countries, timing and length of thetrips or priorities for things to see during the trips.To follow up, we will seek an opportunity to discuss this directly with the individual ForeignAffairs Committees in the near future.
Yours sincerely,
Jakob SimonsenDirectorUNDP Nordic Office
Erika JørgensenDirectorWFP Nordic Office
Asger RyhlChiefUNFPA Nordic Office
Steen AndersenSecretary GeneralUNICEF (on behalf of the Nordic nationalCommittees)
