A delegation from UN-ESCWA participated and attended the Twelfth Ministerial Conference of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XII) on 20-25 April 2008 in Accra, Ghana. Taking place every four years, UNCTAD Ministerial conferences are UNCTAD’s highest decision-making body. Participants included Head of State, Government and Ministers from 192 member States, Heads or representatives of UN organizations and specialized agencies, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, international experts, private sector representatives among others.
Under the overall theme of the Conference, "Addressing the Opportunities and Challenges of Globalization for Development," UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary, Bader Omar AlDafa, addressed the various economic impacts of globalization, including its effect on poverty reduction, wealth and employment generation and income distribution from a regional perspective at various formal occasions. During the conference, the Executive Secretary also explained how the growth in South-South trade, investment and Aid for Trade is transforming the regional economic landscape. The rises in trade in services, and the related expansion in regional labour migration, were among the topics that were discussed as well.
On behalf of the UN Regional Commissions at the launching of the Chief Executive Board (CEB) Interagency Cluster on Trade and Productive Capacity, along with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Heads of UNCTAD, WTO, UNDP, FAO, UNIDO and ITC, Mr. AlDafa welcomed the Cluster initiative that would contribute to strengthening the interlinkages between the normative and the operational work of the UN and between its country-level, regional and global operations. Recognizing the need to succeed in the effective operationalization of the "One UN" initiative, he mentioned that agencies must work synergistically building on their respective areas of expertise.
On the same panel with the President of Finland, H.E. Mrs. Tarja Halonen and other high-level officials, Mr. AlDafa spoke at the interactive thematic Roundtable on "Globalization, Development and Poverty Reduction: Their Social and Gender Dimensions." He highlighted the multi-dimensional aspects of globalization in the ESCWA Region, including the key challenges of unemployment, migration and gender disparity issues. To address these challenges, however he emphasized that there was recently a surge in efforts of governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to address some of these concerns.
Mr. AlDafa also participated in a side event during the UNCTAD Ministerial Conference on “Regional Perspectives on the Aid for Trade Initiative Implementation,” which was organized by all the UN Regional Commissions. During this event, Mr. AlDafa presented the supply-side constraints and impediments to producing goods and services competitively in the ESCWA region. Some of these major constraints are infrastructural and institutional constraints, trade facilitation measures, non-tariff barriers and labour mobility.
To assist in addressing the various challenges facing the region, ESCWA took the opportunity at UNCTAD XII to meet with relevant international organizations. It is important to highlight the meeting with the WTO Deputy-Director General, Ms. Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza, whereby they discussed collaborative ways to promote the Aid for Trade Initiative in the ESCWA member countries to address the challenges of globalization and increasing competitiveness.
The Accra Declaration, along with the more action-oriented Accra Accord, set a broad agenda for international efforts to make trade help the progress of developing countries towards prosperity. Member States recommitted themselves to free and fair trade and also vowed to redress current strategies that have lagged behind in reducing global poverty at the midpoint of efforts in achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
League of Arab States, Cairo, Egypt
