World parliamentarians to explore solutions to global problems

Speakers of Parliament from almost 140 countries will arrive in New York next week to discuss the role of parliaments in addressing global issues such as conflict, terrorism, migration, discrimination and climate change at the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, it was announced here Friday.

"This is a platform that will be given to the highest parliamentary authorities in the world to look at global issues," Martin Chungong of Cameroon, secretary-general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) said at a press conference.

"We have 138 speakers of national parliaments and 39 deputy speakers announced to participate in the meeting, and they come from 140 countries," said Chungong.

A major focus of the conference will be how parliaments can help support governments to implement the United Nation's post-2015 development agenda, expected to be adopted in September to promote sustainable development across the world.

Chungong gave an example from Uganda to demonstrate the contribution that parliaments can make to meeting development goals.

"The parliament said that the allocation for health was very minimal and they said that they were not going to pass the budget if the allocation for health was not increased, to the detriment of the military spending," said Chungong.

With support from the IPU, the parliament was able to successfully negotiate to increase the health spending in the budget.

"The government backed down and increased the funding for health and this was because the IPU had been working with the parliament to promote a strong response to the challenges of maternal, newborn and child health," Chungong said.

Several countries will be noticeably absent from the three-day conference, which will take place between Aug. 31 and Sept. 2 at UN Headquarters in New York.

Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of Russia's Upper House, will not be in attendance after she was unable to obtain an appropriate U.S. visa to participate in the conference.

"We know that a visa was granted but whether that would allow her to attend the IPU conference, that we are not sure about, so we need to have more clarity on that. To say that a visa was denied I don't think would be accurate," IPU President Saber Chowdhury of Bangladesh said at the press conference.

"It is only this morning that we have learnt officially that she is not coming," Chungong added. "Of course, we regret this fact because we think that this is a forum where all members of parliament -- true to the principles of democracy -- could exercise their freedom of expression."

Australia and Myanmar will also not be present at the meeting, due to domestic issues at home, including the upcoming elections in Myanmar.

Speakers and deputy speakers will have the opportunity to address the conference during plenary sessions. Discussions will center on issues of peace and development, including the Sustainable Development Goals -- a set of 17 environmental, economic and social goals expected to be adopted by UN member states in September. Endit