On the Meeting of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Mr.Valentin Rybakov with the Leadership of the UNICEF and UNFPA

On October 4, 2013 Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Mr.Valentin Rybakov had a meeting with Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Mr.Anthony Lake and Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Ms.Kate Gilmore.

During the meeting with UNICEF Executive Director the sides discussed the implementation of the Fund’s current projects in Belarus and further perspectives of cooperation.

Deputy Minister requested UNICEF to actively cooperate with Belarus in order to provide assistance to children with disabilities, women and children affected by the Chernobyl disaster, HIV/AIDS prevention, combating human trafficking. Executive Director praised the achievements of Belarus in ensuring the rights of the child, as well as in the field of reducing maternal and child mortality. Mr.Lake assured the Belarusian side that UNICEF would continue to support national priorities in Belarus.

During the meeting with Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA Mr.Rybakov raised a number of issues on the development of cooperation between Belarus and the Fund. Among the priorities of collaboration demographic security, prevention of young people’s self-destructivehabits, HIV/AIDS prevention, combating domestic violence, fighting trafficking in persons have been identified. Ms.Gilmore gave a positive assessment of the state of UNFPA and Belarus cooperation and expressed willingness to continue to assist Belarus in addressing the priority issues in the framework of the UNFPA Country Programme for Belarus for 2011-2015 and beyond.

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