Third World Network calls for a renewed mandate for UNCTAD and a strong participation of civil society in the debates leading up to UNCTAD XIV.
Sanya Reid Smith, senior researcher at Third World Network, addressed the sixty-second annual session of the Trade and Development Board, UNCTAD's highest decision-making body, on the importance of UNCTAD's mandate and an inclusive preparatory process for the fourteenth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIV).
Calling for a renewed mandate, Ms. Smith pointed out that UNCTAD has been one of the few international organizations to successfully predict recent financial crises and advocate for appropriate reform.
 The rationale for UNCTAD today is as relevant as ever as the UN organisation that has an integrated approach to development that includes: macroeconomics, finance, debt, trade, technology and investment ...We hope that this broad UNCTAD role continues, as this integrated approach is greatly needed within the UN system.  Sanya Reid Smith Third World Network |  |
On the role of civil society, Ms. Smith said: "We hope civil society organizations can contribute to the debates in line with the practice across the United Nations".
She asserted that in other United Nations agencies, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Health Organization, civil society receives the proposed texts beforehand, including those proposed by Member countries, is present during the negotiations, and can provide inputs and make contributions to the debates.
The annual session of the Trade and Development Board convenes for two weeks every September. It brings together UNCTAD member States and experts from government, academia, multilateral organizations and civil society to discuss persisting and emerging trade and development challenges. The sixty-second annual session opened on 14 September.
