On June 21, 2018, the Senior Coordinator of Asia and Pacific Center for Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM), UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Mr. Mostafa Mohaghegh, visited COMSATS Secretatiat, Islamabad, and discussed avenues of cooperation between COMSATS and UNESCAP. Mr. Mohaghegh was accompanied by Mr. Aamir Qayum, Project Officer, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Pakistan. Mr. Muhaghegh was on his visit to Islamabad to attend the 6th meeting of regional technical group of Disaster Management Confidence Building Measures (DM-CBM) of Heart of Asia, Istanbul Process.
Mr. Mohaghegh’s meeting at COMSATS Secretariat was attended by senior officials of COMSATS, including Advisor (SDGs), Ambassador (R) Fauzia Nasreen; Sr. Assistant Directors, Mr. Farhan Ansari, and Ms. Huma Balouch; and Sr. Program Officer, Ms. Mehwish Durrani. During the meeting, the two sides discussed ways to enhance cooperation between COMSATS and UNESCAP in areas of common interest, particularly in the field of Climate Change.
Mr. Mohagegh informed that APDIM has a governing council comprising of nine members and the Government of Pakistan is very active member of the council. He added that the Center, which is operating from Tehran, is providing opportunities for collaboration among countries in the Asia and Pacific region. He also invited COMSATS to be a part of this regional information platform.
During the meeting, Ambassador (R) Fauzia Nasreen shared her recent experience of attending UNESCAP 74th session held from 11th – 16th May 2017. She proposed that COMSATS and UNESCAP should join hands for conducting activities that may have the objective to build capacity in its member countries to contend with climate change by addressing underlying issues. UNESCAP and COMSATS officials agreed to collaborate for facilitating their common member countries in making best use of available resources and platforms to meet their knowledge and capacity needs; assessed success stories, trends, needs, and gaps in knowledge and capacity for advancing sustainable development.
Mr. Mohaghegh was also informed about the participation of Executive Director COMSATS in UNESCAP upcoming Regional Consultation meeting on South-South cooperation in Asia and the Pacific. Ambassador (R) Fauzia appraised that the event is a good opportunity to assess what countries have learned so far on approaches, success stories, and challenges of South-South and Triangular cooperation, including technological cooperation in the Asia and Pacific region.
