URU, Alm.del - 2011-12 - Bilag 22: Invitation til studietur med FN til Burkina Faso januar 2012

Dear Chairpersons of the Committees,On behalf of the United Nations system in the Nordic countries, it is ourpleasure to invite members of the Foreign Affairs Committees of the five Nordiccountries on a field visit to Burkina Faso to firsthand experience our operationalwork.Our cooperation with the Foreign Affairs Committees is long-standing.Successful visits for Nordic parliamentarians have been organized to Zambia (2004),Malawi (2006), Mozambique (2007), Nicaragua (2008), Liberia (2009) and Nepal(2011) with the aim to expand knowledge of the UN system and its work in practice.We have always received very positive responses on these visits.The 2012 field trip to Burkina Faso will take place around third week ofJanuary – with the tentative dates 16 – 21 January 2012. The trip will offer visits to anumber of activities and programmes showcasing different innovative and jointapproaches for sustainable solutions in a country which ranks as one of the poorest inthe world – 161 of 169 on UNDP’s Human Development Index. The country haslimited natural resources and around 90% of the population lives on the crops theygrow which make them extremely vulnerable to the recurrent droughts that affect thecountry.The UN in Burkina Faso is represented by a strong Country Team that coordinates awide range of joint activities. The visit will introduce the Foreign Affairs Committeemembers to a wide range of themes such as: adaptation to climate changes,protection of natural resources and connecting farmers to markets, improvingmaternal health and increasing access to family planning, hiv/aids and theprevention of mother-to-child transmission, pediatric care and primary preventionamong young people and protection of orphans as well as local poverty initiativesthrough microfinance and access to energy services.1

We would highly appreciate receiving your expression of interest to participatein this visit. If affirmative, please forward a list of participants and possibly alternateparticipants. We kindly ask you to revert no later than 14 November 2011.We hope that you will find this opportunity interesting and useful and thatprevious participants will share their experiences with potential new participants onthis once-a-year opportunity to get a first hand impression of the work of the UN inthe field.Please direct your responses and/or questions to:UNDP/Jakob Simonsen, +45 35 46 70 10, [email protected]UNFPA/Pernille Fenger, +45 3546 7033, [email protected]UNICEF/Steen Andersen, +45 3527 3800, [email protected]WFP/Anne Poulsen, +45 3546 7130, [email protected]We are looking forward to hearing from you.Yours sincerely,