Review of the technical cooperation activities of UNCTAD and their financing

The Trade and Development Board

1. Reaffirms the role of UNCTAD technical cooperation as one of the three fundamental pillars of UNCTAD, and stresses the importance of coordination among the three pillars for coherent and mutually reinforced assistance;
    
2. Highlights the relevance of UNCTAD technical cooperation in supporting the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the spirit of leaving no one behind, stresses the importance of active participation by UNCTAD in the reform of the United Nations development system, and asks the UNCTAD secretariat to prioritize its support to developing countries to respond to socioeconomic challenges related to the coronavirus disease of 2019 pandemic;
    
3. Appreciates the efforts already made by the UNCTAD secretariat with regard to results-based management, and calls upon UNCTAD to further pursue its efforts;
    
4. Welcomes the start of the drafting of a new technical cooperation strategy, and calls upon UNCTAD to finalize the strategy in close collaboration with member States and in time for its adoption and implementation immediately after the fifteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development;
    
5. Takes note with appreciation of the increase in the overall contribution to UNCTAD trust funds in 2019, and in particular welcomes the increased focus of resources on the least developed countries and new avenues of cooperation with middle-income countries, underscoring the importance of more predictable, stable funding through multi-year and non-earmarked contributions to UNCTAD technical cooperation, while reaffirming the need to improve its application of the United Nations principles of transparency and accountability, as well as of results-based management;
    
6. Stresses the urgent need to address the funding gap for UNCTAD activities mandated by the General Assembly, to enable the organization to fulfil its mandate from the Economic and Social Council and ensure sustainable funding to deliver timely technical cooperation to address the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic in developing countries, and therefore calls upon UNCTAD to ensure the necessary prioritization of resources;
    
7. Encourages the UNCTAD secretariat to further explore country-level funding established in the context of the reform of the United Nations deve lopment system, such as pooled funding mechanisms, to support the United Nations Inter- Agency Cluster on Trade and Productive Capacity led by UNCTAD.