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| Barbados’ Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Hughland Allman, served as Adjunct de President at the Postal Meeting in Switzerland.(FP) |
Barbados was elected to chair the first meeting of the Council of Administration’s Cooperation and Development Committee in Berne, Switzerland from April 22 to 25.
The country took the lead role in the group tasked with implementing the Universal Postal Union’s (UPU’s) Development Cooperation Strategy which will be realised through six regional development plans.
This is according to a statement from the Barbados Postal Service, which also explained that the UPU’s Development Cooperation Strategy for 2013 to 2016 involved a look at a number of areas.
These include the UPU’s efforts in the areas of postal sector reform and governance; continued implementation of technical assistance programmes specifically for least developed countries, island nations and landlocked countries; strengthening of the UPU’s training policy to guarantee the sustainability of cooperation activities; putting in place an emergency assistance mechanism and the UPU presence in the field.
The plans were formulated for Africa, Latin America (including Cuba and the Dominican Republic), the 22 countries that constitute the League of Arab States (including Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Djibouti), the Asia-Pacific region, the Caribbean (including Belize, French Guiana and Suriname), Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The country was represented by Deputy Postmaster General of International Postal Affairs and Business Development, Dorcas Scantlebury, while the island’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Hughland Allman, served as Adjunct de President, and Assistant Postmaster General International Postal Affairs, Margaret Ashby made country interventions.
A number of sub-committees reported to the Chair of the Committee on Co-operation and Development during the meeting. These included the Technical Cooperation and Postal Sector Development Project Group; the Postal Financial Inclusion Project Group; and the Postal Trade Facilitation for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Business Development Group.
The UPU, established in 1874, is an intergovernmental organisation and a specialised agency of the United Nations. It is the primary forum for cooperation between governments, Posts and other stakeholders of the worldwide postal sector.
It is also responsible for maintaining a genuinely universal network that provides modern products and services and establishes rules for international mail exchanges among its 192 members. In addition, the UPU also makes recommendations to stimulate mail volume growth, and improve the quality of service for customers.
In 2011, some 5.4 million employees processed and delivered six billion parcels. Many postal services also offer expedited mail, financial and electronic services. The statement added that some 670, 000 postal establishments made the postal network the largest physical distribution network in the world.