The topic of Minister Barco's talk will be "Achievements of Colombia's Foreign Affairs Policies and Their Impact in the Latin American Region." She will highlight recent successes achieved by the administration of President Alvaro Uribe in improving democratic governance at the national level and in enhancing Colombia's standing in the international community. Minister Barco holds master's degrees in business administration (Instituto de Empresas, Madrid) and urban and regional planning (Harvard University). During her long and successful career in the public sector, she previously served as Director of the City Planning Department, Bogotá; adviser to the Colombia Ministries of Economic Development, Culture and Environment; and adviser to the National Planning Department and Office of the Mayor of Bogotá. She also was international cooperation adviser to the United Nations Development Programme, a researcher at Universidad de los Andes, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

The lecture will begin at 3:00 PM in the Elizabeth Rose Conference Hall of UN House with opening remarks from Wataru Hayashi, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Colombia, and Francisco J. Sierra, Ambassador of Colombia to Japan. A copy of the full programme is available online at http://archive.unu.edu/news/public-lecture/Barco-prog.doc.

Simultaneous Japanese-English interpretation of the lecture will be provided. The event is open to the public, but advance registration (by 25 March) is required. A registration reply form can be downloaded from http://archive.unu.edu/news/public-lecture/Barco-reply.doc.

For those unable to attend, the Minister Barco's lecture will be "webcast" live (and archived) at http://c3.unu.edu/unuvideo/index.cfm?fuseaction= event.home&EventID=34. Media representatives are cordially invited to attend. The minister will be available for press interviews.