66. The representative of the Secretariat recalled the information provided on the Joint Initiative at the previous meeting and updated the Council as to the information contained in Annex 2 to document IP/C/W/304. The first phase of the initiative involved two regional workshops – one for LDCs in sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti, the other for LDCs in the Asia-Pacific region. These workshops, together with bilateral contacts, would also help to draw up a list of priority forms of assistance that should be provided under the Joint Initiative in the second phase which would focus on specific country action plans. The two Secretariats were in close contact on the implementation of the first phase. They were exploring venues and dates and in contact with some LDCs who had offered to host a workshop. It was hoped that the first workshop could be held in May 2002 and the second in the second half of 2002. Eight LDCs had expressed interest or made specific requests under the Joint Initiative. He welcomed this and recalled that technical cooperation, including this Joint Initiative, was essentially demand-driven. It was therefore important that interested countries put forward their requests and identify their needs and priorities, in order to help the two Secretariats provide tailor made programmes. The Secretariats were in contact with each other in deciding how to respond to the requests that had already been received from specific countries. He added that the Joint Initiative did not substitute for, but complemented the ongoing technical cooperation work of the two organizations, both for developing and for least-developed countries.
