News Blogging in the Huffington Post of 29 April 2012, Ms. Deborah James, Director, International Programs, at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C., who was a key participant at the Civil Society Forum at UNCTAD XIII in Doha, Qatar, posted an account of the negotiations leading up to the adoption of the Doha Mandate at UNCTAD XIII.
The Doha Mandate, adopted by consensus today by the member States, requests that UNCTAD continue its work along the three pillars of consensus-building, policy research and technical assistance. At the UNCTAD XIII conference in Doha, Qatar, the delegations of Israel and Palestine were able to agree in consultations with all other delegations on the text of the future work programme of UNCTAD for Palestine. The eight-day Civil Society Forum at UNCTAD XIII saw vibrant discussion in 10 plenary sessions and 29 side events. Participants adopted a Civil Society Declaration, drawing attention to current development challenges and urging that UNCTAD be strengthened in order to address them. The State has a key role to play in creating environments that foster innovation and employ technology as a fundamental driver of economic growth, agreed participants of a special UNCTAD XIII event, organized in cooperation with the Qatar Foundation. The Global Services Coalition congratulated UNCTAD on the success of the Global Services Forum, which witnessed the foundation meeting of the Arab Coalition of Services Industries and launched insightful new publications on services, trade and development. Developed and developing countries alike have been expressing strong commitments to the strengthening of UNCTAD and reinforcing its mandate in their formal statements delivered in the General Debate at UNCTAD XIII. Ms. Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a letter to the President of UNCTAD XIII has called attention to the right to development. Preparation for the June conference will involve extensive consensus building around the main issues, a task to which UNCTAD can contribute, drawing on its long history of promoting sustainable development and poverty-reducing policies, an UNCTAD XIII panel said today. Its history of predicting crises and proposing successful but non-mainstream economic policies has now paradoxically put UNCTAD under threat of having its mandate reduced, warns Ms. Deborah James of the CEPR.
|
|
|
|