The fifth meeting of the Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development will be held in early 2018 at the Palais des Nations, Geneva.

This meeting is the fifth in a series of meetings intended to facilitate the reporting of the Working Group to the twenty-first session of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development in 2018.

Dear WGEC members and observers,

Please see below a message from the Chair of the Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation, Ambassador Benedicto Fonseca Filho.

Best wishes,

CSTD secretariat

First of all, I wish to convey to all WGEC members and observers my best wishes for the new year.

It is my pleasure to forward my second draft of the report. As per the timeline agreed upon in September, the aforementioned document is offered for discussion at the WGEC 29-31 January 2018 meeting.

Upon preparing this second draft, I considered carefully all inputs received to my first proposal for the WGEC´s report and strived to come up with formulations that might be acceptable for all WGEC participants.

You will notice that I have incorporated several formulations proposed by different WGEC members and observers which, in my opinion, improve the understanding and provide better context for portions of the text and/or may allow for consideration of some ideas that were rejected by a number of participants in their previous wording. However, in the light of significant differences in approach in regard to both substance and format, I remain convinced that some issues can only be adequately tackled - and wishfully resolved - in face-to-face negotiations.

I wish finally to thank all those who have sent comments and inputs to the first draft and therefore contributed to give more consistency and precision to the WGEC report.

Looking forward to our fifth (and final) meeting,

I remain,

Sincerely Yours

Benedicto Fonseca Filho

Note: The comments to the Chair's first draft of the WGEC report submitted by members and observers of the Working Group are available under "Contributions" (only from stakeholders that explicitly requested their comments to be uploaded). This section also includes contributions submitted as inputs to the 5th meeting and those submitted as a follow-up to the 4th meeting.