Saarc ministerial meet begins in Male Feb 18

The Saarc ministerial-level meeting on poverty alleviation begins in the Maldives' capital Male on February 18.
It will be preceded by the senior officials meeting (SOM) on the first day of the two-day-event, said an official of the foreign affairs ministry here yesterday.
The last ministerial meeting was held in Colombo in August 2006.
The Saarc summit in New Delhi gave directives for new initiatives specially to articulate regional and sub-regional projects with the possibility of finding funds from Social Window of Saarc Development Fund (SDF) and six observers of the regional grouping USA, Japan, Republic of Korea, EU, Iran and China, the source added.
The ministerial meeting will consider further mainstreaming of 22 Saarc Development Goals (SDGs).
It will also review the national actions that member countries of the regional body have taken to realise the goals and benchmarks of the ongoing Saarc Decade of Poverty Alleviation (2006-2015), the source said.
The meeting, among other things, is also expected to consider how to operationalise some of the innovative models like establishing Saarc villages, one in each member country of the eight-nation fora.
Meanwhile, India and Sri Lanka have already identified one Saarc village in their respective countries. A village of Murshidabad in West Bengal has been identified as Indian Saarc village.
The Saarc village aims at showcasing and replicating innovative development models of member states which would include areas of women empowerment, micro-credit, non-formal education, vocational training, solar energy, small scale irrigation and non-farm activities like poultry and dairy, the source added.