The 15th Session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) opened this morning with calls for action to help Least Developed Countries buckling under the weight of debt and the COVID-19 pandemic.
A day before officially handing over to Prime Minister Mia Mottley, outgoing UNCTAD president, Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya, said UNCTAD 15, the theme of which is ‘From inequality and vulnerability to Prosperity for all’ provided “a platform to put development back on track” by focusing on four things.
“Firstly, on transforming economies through diversification; secondly, fostering more sustainable and resilient economies, thirdly, improving the way development is financed, and fourthly, revitalising multilateralism to achieve a sustainable inclusive and digital world of shared prosperity,” he told the audience attending the opening ceremony and plenary at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, virtually from UNCTAD’s Geneva headquarters and around the globe.
Kenyatta also said that a framework “for transitioning from inequality and vulnerability to prosperity for all” was already in place. This “includes goals and targets established through the Addis Ababa Financing for Development Conference, the 2030 sustainable development goals, as well as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
“It is now time to move from promises and commitments, it is now time to accelerate implementation of these promises and pledges,” he said and reiterated his call for “the international community to come together to work towards a functioning multilateral system” and “to enhance pandemic preparedness and response to build a robust global health care architecture”.
“No single government or multilateral agency can address these threats alone. We must work together in solidarity if we are indeed to succeed,” he stated.
Earlier in his address, the Kenyan president stated the COVID-19 pandemic had “created unprecedented social economic disruption which has exasperated the vulnerabilities of many countries as well as widened inequality” and “reversed or stalled the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, rendering millions of people to lose their lives as well as their livelihood and many have fallen back into extreme poverty”.
He continued: “As tax revenues have dipped due to the contraction of economic activities and the increase in the debt burden, the fiscal space to provide the safety net to vulnerable groups in many of our countries has equally been significantly constrained. The multilateral trading system has also come under mounting pressure due to trade tensions and rising economic nationalism. The inequality in the sharing of vaccines reflects a multilateral system that is deeply flawed.
“To date, recovery has been unbalanced reflecting faulty lines that existed before our pandemic. There have been substantial differences in GDP growth between regions and countries and a sharp divergence in income gains among social groups”.
He also said available evidence showed “there has been significant progress in the implementation of UNCTAD 14’s commitment on several fronts”.
Among these are:
- “Multilateralism for trade and development”;
- the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) Plus “which provides the framework for the future development of trade cooperation”;
- Strengthening of the African Caribbean and Pacific states which brings “79 countries from diverse parts of the world to work together on global challenges and to promote sustainable development”, and,
- The Africa CARICOM Summit, which held its inaugural meeting less than a month ago.
The first session of UNCTAD was held in 1964. It is held every four years. (GBM)
