​​The Fifth Intergovernmental Meeting on the Malé Declaration was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 6-7 October, 2003. The meeting was organised in order to review the progress made since the last network meeting, and to chart out the future plan of action. The Meeting was inaugurated and addressed by H.E. Shajahan Siraj. Minister of Environment and Forest (MoEF), Sabihuddin Ahmed, Secretary of MoEF, Omar Faruque Khan, Director General, DoE, Mahboob Elahi, Director General, SACEP, Johan Kuylenstierna, Director, SEI-Y and Surendra Shrestha, Regional Director, United Nation Enviornment Programme Regional Office for Asai and the Pacific/ Regional Resource Center for Asia and the Pacific (UNEP ROAP/ RRC.AP).

Participants included representatives from the Ministries of Environment and National Implementing Agencies (NIA) of the participating countries, Monitoring Committee (MoC), South Asia Cooperative Environment Program (SACEP), Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), United Nation Enviornment Programme Regional Resource Center for Asia and the Pacific (UNEP RRC.AP) , some experts and an independent facilitator.