This committee was formed in 2001 and Bangladesh is the current chair of the committee, said a press release.

Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs Rokeya Sultana will inaugurate the meeting. Representatives of Saarc member states, including Afghanistan are joining the meeting.

The member states will launch a first-ever primer on gender initiatives within Saarc that was developed by the experts from the member states with support from UNIFEM.

The primer, for the first time, brings together innovative practices on gender mainstreaming and potential of such practices for replication across the region.

The meeting would also review progress in implementation of the decisions taken at its first meeting.

In 1996, the Saarc leaders had launched the 2001-2010 decade as "Saarc Decade of the Rights of the Child". The experts would evaluate the progress achieved by respective member countries as well as the region on realising various goals of the decade.

The meeting will also review progress in preparation of a Saarc gender database.

Bangladesh will brief on the first-ever Saarc Youth Camp in the meet. It was decided in the 14th Saarc Summit in Delhi to organise Saarc Youth Camp every year across member states to connect generations of South Asian Youth.

It is expected that the Saarc Youth Camp will be held in November in Dhaka, the release added.