More than 90 MPs from some 40 countries, including four Presiding Officers of national parliaments, participated in the Fifth Round Table, sponsored by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and held in Havana (Cuba) on 3 and 4 September 2003, on The role of members of parliament in promoting sustainable development at national level within the framework of the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The participants at the round table, chaired by the Speaker of the Cuban National Assembly of the People's Power, Mr. Ricardo Alarcón, and organised by the UNCCD Secretariat, stressed more particularly the need to develop synergies for sustainable development, implement coherent national development strategies, and adopt appropriate budgets.

With respect to the Doha round of negotiations, the MPs present in Havana emphasised the need to take a closer look at the relationship between trade, environment and development and to act to dismantle, for instance, the current system of agricultural export subsidies and barriers to food imports from developing countries.

---

Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, the IPU, the oldest multilateral organisation, currently has 145 affiliated national parliaments and five regional assemblies as associate members. The organisation of the world's parliaments also has an office as Permanent Observer with the United Nations in New York.
Other press releases	More information

---

Contact for additional information or interviews:

Mrs. Luisa Ballin, IPU Information Officer 5, ch. du Pommier, CH - 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex / Geneva Tel. +4122 919 41 16/27 Fax: +4122 919 41 60, 919 41 97 E-mail: lb@mail.ipu.org