Considering the vital roles parliamentarians play in accelerating MDGs achievement, the UN Millennium Campaign and the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) initiated "Engaging Parliamentarians in Efforts to Accelerate MDG Achievement in Asia and the Pacific" project with the support from the Rockefeller Foundation.

As part of this regional project, two-day multi-stakeholder meetings at sub-regional levels will bring together parliamentarians, civil society organizations (CSOs) and other policy makers for discourse on critical development issues for accelerating progress towards meeting the current development targets including the MDGs and ICPD agenda, and for informing the new development agenda beyond 2015. From this perspective, the forum discussions will focus on governance accountability, inequality, sustainable development, sexual and reproductive health rights, and aim to identify priority issues for advocacy. These sub-regional meetings will also promote national level review of the relevance and status of the MDGs and the ICPD among other sectorial issues, the roles of elected representatives in achieving them as well as their roles in developing a post-2015 agenda framework. A forum will be held in Manila, the Philippines on 20-21 November 2012 for the Southeast, East and Northeast Asia and the Pacific regions, and another in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 10-11 December 2012 for the South, Southwest, North and Central Asia regions.

Documentation:

- Concept note: Sub-regional MPCSO forums in Manila, Philippines and Dhaka, Bangladesh