Posted to the Web: Friday '25' April 2003 @ 1.15pm EST; Updated: 5 May 2003 @ 3.13pm EST
Welcome to ICDA's Special UNCTAD Page
ICDA has observer status with UNCTAD, and since 1976, continues to maintain it. This special page has been designed to re-inforce the "special" relationship that ICDA has with the UN agency. It bears reminding
that there are over 100 NGOs that have this status, but few are actively involved with UNCTAD. ICDA is an exception in the sense that it has participated, or at least been represented at all
of UNCTAD's main events--either on gender & trade, or otherwise. To boot, ICDA makes an effort to integrate an UNCTAD perspective, along with gender, in all aspects of its work. It is therefore
little surprise that the last time we organised a conference--15-16 November 2002--we invited an UNCTAD representative to clarify the
role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). We shall endeavour to update this page as often as possible so as to facilitate further understanding of the work of UNCTAD, and its work with civil society.
Preparations for UNCTAD XI, June 2004 in BRAZIL
Resources
What's New?
Analysis of UNCTAD's latest report on "Trade Performance &
Commodity Dependence"
Check out Institute of Agriculture & Trade Policy (IATP)'s UNCTAD XI Page here
Check out the UN's Non-Governmental Liason Service (NGLS) UNCTAD XI Page here
UNCTAD in the News
Sharing the gains of globalization in the new security environment--Posted 5 May--
The UN Economic Commission for Europe is organizing, in collaboration with UNCTAD, ECLAC, ESCWA, ECA,
ESCAP, UNIDO, WTO, and ICC, a second International Forum on Trade Facilitation, scheduled for 14-15
May 2003 at the United Nations in Geneva. It will focus on the need of developing and poorer transition
economies to receive a fair share of the benefits of trade facilitation and on the necessity to avoid the
risk that increased security in international trade becomes a barrier to trade or a source of discrimination against weaker members of the international trading community.
WTO and UNCTAD step up strategic partnership--
16 April - WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchapakdi and UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero signed a memorandum
of understanding (MOU) institutionalizing and enhancing the current relationship between the two organizations. The MOU
provides a legal framework for technical assistance cooperation. The purpose is to ensure that trade serves development goals
and to help the integration of developing countries, and particularly the least developed of them, into the global economy.
UNCTAD meets with Consumer Unity and Trust Society
CSO recently organized a dialogue between UNCTAD staff members and representatives from the Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) and its
Africa Resource Centre to address issues of mutual interest. Established in 1983, CUTS started off as a consumer protection organization. Since then it has worked in various areas of public interest at the national and international levels. The dialogue took place on 18 February in Geneva and addressed the problems facing least developed countries in light of globalization and the WTO process; competition and consumer policies; globalization and development strategies; recent results of UNCTAD´s trade analysis activities; FDI; and the linkages between trade, environment and development. A day later, Mr. Rubens Ricupero, the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, addressed the CUTS symposium on "Competition Policy and Pro-Poor Development", which covered the following areas:
Competition issues with international dimensions and how developing countries deal with them How does competition policy and law help the poor?
What type of competition policy and law should a developing country have?
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