The ECO Secretariat, in collaboration with UNESCAP and UN-OHRLLS, will organize a high-level meeting on “Implementation of the Awaza Programme of Action in the ECO Region” on 18 November 2026, in Bangkok, Thailand, on the sidelines of the 5th ESCAP Ministerial Conference on Transport. The event is intended to provide a platform for high-level deliberations by ECO Member States, UN entities, and relevant regional and international organizations on the priorities, challenges, and opportunities for implementation of the Awaza Programme of Action (2024–2034) in the ECO Region.
The Awaza Programme of Action accords special status to the subregional and regional organizations as complementary implementing and monitoring mechanisms to national and global ones and requests the relevant regional and subregional organizations to be actively involved in the implementation of the Programme of Action. Accordingly, and on the sidelines of the 3rd UN Conference for Landlocked Countries in August 2025 in the city of Awaza in Turkmenistan, the ministers/high level delegations from the ECO Member States convened a meeting and started to exchange views on ways and means to facilitate implementation of the Awaza Programme of Action in the ECO Region. Building on that high-level political will, the upcoming meeting in Bangkok is expected to contribute to developing a coordinated regional approach and to produce elements for an optimal regional roadmap for implementation of the Awaza PoA in the ECO Region.
The meeting will bring together senior authorities and representatives from the ECO Member States, ESCAP, UN-OHRLLS, UNECE, IRU, development banks and financial institutions, other relevant regional and international organizations, as well as private sector representatives.
The ECO Region is among the most relevant regions as relates to Awaza PoA. Seven out of 32 landlocked developing countries in the world are located in the ECO Region; a critical mass of the ECO total membership (7 out of 10 member states are landlocked). The Concept of the Side Event, as well as its Programme, is available at the following link:
