Trade and Development Board, 75th executive session - Opening remarks
12 February 2024
Thank you so much, Mr. Pesident,
Ambassador Febrian Ruddyard,
Your excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
It is my great pleasure to be here once more, barely two weeks since we last met, during the closing session of one of the longest Trade and Development Boards in recent memory. I want to thank you all again for your commitment and engagement in the closing of the previous TDB, and especially for your willingness to reach common ground on even the most difficult issues. Thanks to you, our Board has been able to deliver once more on its mandate.
On that note, let me add that I am very happy to see you this often. Partly because I honestly believe that with each conversation, we forge and fortify trust and inject meaning and understanding to this Forum
I will divide my remarks in two parts. First, I will speak briefly about the work we have done now that I am half-way through my four-year term. And second, I will share thoughts on what comes next, with special reference to the 60th anniversary.
I will start with the work done.
When I arrived in September 2021, I came with a clear mandate of reform, with the hope of delivering a more agile, more transparent, and more impactful institution. But at the same time, I said very clearly that I didn’t believe in a “shock therapy” or “Tabula Rasa” type of reform. This Institution has great staff and a great history; it has great expertise, deep analysis, statistical power, knowledge, and capacities that merit respect and praise.
On those strengths we needed to build the future, and that’s been my goal.
As you might remember, barely a few months in, I brought about a ten-point plan of quick low-hanging fruit restructuring, which kick-started our reform cycle going forward. I won’t go one by one, but I want to highlight some of the most notable results from this process.
A key point in the ten-point plan was the creation of a stand-alone statistics service, a team which is now producing important results in key areas for UNCTAD and the UN as a whole, such as our work on Beyond GDP, which will be central to the Summit of the Future.
Another point was the creation of different interdivisional working groups, on gender, on climate, on the WTO, among others. These groups have played a critical role in producing very relevant research – laying the groundwork for our Global Crisis Response Group and G20 teams, which have also achieved remarkable success.
Some of our recent research has influenced and informed important UN processes in NY and have been picked up by the Secretary General himself on many occasions and by several country leaders also. This is a real influence, by way of teamwork that breaks silos and research that meets the most rigorous standards.
Here, on the subject of our interdivisional working groups, I want to highlight that within the Gender Working Group, a recent expert consultation was convened to develop a strategic plan on trade and gender. This gathering brought together 17 experts from diverse backgrounds—academia, policymaking, the private sector, and international institutions. This consultation shed light on research gaps and policymaking needs in the realm of trade and gender, offering a plethora of ideas and proposals for this house to carry on.
This consultation exemplifies our commitment to integrating gender perspectives into our work, underscoring the rich pool of gender expertise we possess and our collective effort to make our contribution in this field as substantive as possible, helping to close the unacceptable gaps women around the world face.
Another important priority was the preparation and execution of a new Technical Cooperation Strategy, which has now been reviewed and launched.
A priority that we have been less able to deliver on is to have a fundraising capacity at the OSG, something that has been frustrated by the budget freeze, but I hope we will finally be able to hire a person in the next three months.
An important request you have made is to launch a detailed Annual Report. We delivered one last year and the next report will be launched this April.
Another priority in our plan has been to bolster our publications committee to increase the peer-review and quality of our research. This is an area where I have devoted much of my own personal time, meeting with the research teams, often working on the reports myself, line by line, chapter by chapter. This has been a very valuable experience for me, as I have learnt a great deal from my amazing colleagues here at UNCTAD.
As I said when I arrived – I did not bring the expertise to UNCTAD. The expertise was already here. All I am trying to do is ensure that this expertise is more synergetic, more coherent, more impactful. I know how much all of you value this particular point – so you can be assured that we will continue working very hard to deliver.
Another key point you ambassadors have also insisted upon is to bring UNCTAD closer to you, and to make our work ever more transparent. This commitment is also deeply personal to me. We have revamped the delegates portal, and my own agenda and statements are regularly published at the UNCTAD website, and I have made sure to always have time available to meet each of you as often as possible. I fundamentally believe that trust is something that can always be built upon, no matter the geopolitics. This is why I have kept my doors open, knowing that this is my best way to contribute to revitalizing our Conference. The last TDB we just closed is perhaps testament that we are on the right path here.
Another important point, and another of your most frequent requests, has been to deliver on the Bridgetown Covenant through results-based management. Here I am happy to say, as announced at the Working Party last December, that we will organize a briefing to the membership in April to present our progress so far in UNCTAD’s RBM. From the beginning of this exercise, my objective has been to provide this house with a complementary management tool for comprehensive analysis and results monitoring, in particular in relation to the implementation of the Bridgetown Covenant’s four transformations. I look forward to sharing more on this with you in April.
Lastly, a key priority of our strategy, and one which I am very excited about, has been our work on the communications front. I will say today what I said two years ago: effective communications is part of our mandate delivery, not a PR campaign. On this front, the results speak for themselves. Last year, we broke the million-person readership number in our publication downloads; our website has received more than 8 million visitors; and we have close to one million followers in social media, from less than half a million two years ago. But there is one special, further announcement I want to make today.
I am pleased to share that in this 60th anniversary year, UNCTAD will launch a rebranding to better communicate our mission, to enhance our visibility and to expand our global voice.
Following an extensive year-long brand audit, we identified a critical need to ensure UNCTAD had a strategically managed brand.
The audit revealed a concerning level of fragmentation, with over 31 different logos in circulation, 18 different types of visuals for meetings, 32 different designs for publications, 29 websites, and little name recognition or understanding what UNCTAD stands for among key audiences- all of which indicated a lack of a cohesive strategy.
As we commemorate our 60th anniversary this year, we are proud to share with you a new revitalized branding for UNCTAD that builds on our heritage, looks to the future, and underlines the essence of our mission: it is UN Trade and Development - UNCTAD
This rebranding initiative is not a cosmetic change but a strategic realignment to strengthen our organization's position as a leading global voice in trade and development. We have these in different languages if you want to see it or we have also these in terms of publications how these will look and there is another one. These are in different colors, different divisions for their publications can use the same logo but it will identify the different reports.
It builds on our heritage and integrates the UNCTAD acronym too.
Our name will remain the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. This will not change, but the new logo will reinforce our commitment to our mission and to the UN, retaining the UN emblem.
And it clearly explains what we do: trade and development.
In a few weeks, we are excited to confirm that you will start to see our new branding across various touchpoints, including our website, social media channels, and reports.
I believe that now, as we start our 60th anniversary celebrations, is the best time to do this. Our expert team will be happy to answer any questions or provide further information. As always, your continued support and engagement will be very important.
Excellencies,
With this, let me very briefly touch on the future.
I am very happy to say we now have a date for our 60th Anniversary Celebrations – the 12th and 13th of June – and now we also have a theme: Charting a New Development Course in a Changing World.
The Anniversary aims to reflect, with an eye on the future, on the transformative journey of UNCTAD’s past six decades, a period that has seen significant shifts in the global economic landscape, including the rise of the Global South, the digital revolution, and significant strides in reducing poverty and hunger; achievements, however, that have been shadowed by growing inequalities, environmental disasters, and a pressing need for a revamped system of global governance and finance; especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, our world has lost its capacity to recover sustainably and inclusively from crises and has fallen out of track; as a result, key development indicators, including extreme poverty, the human development index, and food insecurity have been in dangerous regress in the last four years.
UNCTAD has been at the vanguard of the changes of the last six decades, advocating for globalization that leaves no one behind. The 60th anniversary presents a unique opportunity to forge new directions in a world that is increasingly interconnected and multipolar. Our mission is to deliver a new UNCTAD for a new world.
The event will convene global leaders, thinkers, and stakeholders across four thematic segments. The UNSG and other heads of State and Government have already confirmed their participation. We very much look forward to celebrating this milestone together.
Lastly, our hope is to also use the 60th anniversary as a springboard to kickstart the discussions that will inform our 16th Ministerial in 2025. We are now in the final stages of choosing our host country, which we hope to be able to announce to you soon.
Your excellencies,
UNCTAD starts a very important anniversary year with two years of hard work that are bearing fruit.
We are now also in the final stages of the process to choose the 3 division directors posts that we will allocate this year, a process in which I am ensuring both gender equality and geographic balance. Please let me assure you that I know how important this process is to all of you, and that we are doing our very best to be able to fill these posts as soon as possible despite the very real constraints we are facing due to the liquidity crisis of the UN. Our hope is to have our three new divisional directors in their post before the summer.
To close, as we look forward, let me emphasize the power of our collective endeavor. The journey we have embarked upon together at UNCTAD is more than just reform; it is about reimagining and revitalizing our role in the global landscape. The challenges we face are daunting, but our resolve to address them is unwavering.
Our work on gender, climate change, trade, technology, investment, and development finance, among others, is not just responding to the calls of today but is proactive, setting the agenda for a sustainable and equitable future.
This has been accompanied by a strong effort to respond to the needs of Africa, the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS that we have done with you together.
The road ahead is filled with opportunities to deepen our impact, enhance our agility, and amplify our voice in the global discourse on trade and development. As we celebrate our 60th anniversary, let us remember that we are not just marking six decades of history; we are laying the groundwork for the future – a future where trade and development are accessible and beneficial to all, where no one is left behind.
I thank you for your trust, your collaboration, and your commitment. Together, we are achieving and can achieve remarkable things. Let's make this 60th anniversary year a turning point, a new phase in our goal to elevate the purpose and impact of this great house.
I thank you, Mr. President.
