The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD, has joined the international effort to assist the reconstruction of the Central American countries devastated by Hurricane Mitch, in particular Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala.
Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero today announced a four-point plan whereby the Geneva-based organization would provide support to the region´s short and long-term economic reconstruction efforts, through technical assistance programmes.
A priority will be to press public creditors to relieve these poor countries´ foreign debt burden, in line with the declaration made by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin of France, at the Monday opening of UNCTAD´s Partners for Development summit meeting (9 - 12 November) in Lyon, France. Other European countries, including the UK and Germany, have indicated their willingness to follow suit.
Supplementing the organization´s existing work for developing countries in the areas of trade, investment promotion and enterprise development, agreements being concluded this week at the Lyon meeting with the private sector and other international agencies will help give sharper teeth to UNCTAD´s assistance to the stricken countries.
Tomorrow (Thursday), Mr. Ricupero is expected to sign an agreement with five Central American Governments, the Government of Uruguay and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on a programme to develop small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Central America. SMEs are the backbone of the region´s economy; and, helping local entrepreneurs get on their feet is regarded as a key to the success of long-term reconstruction efforts.
Separately, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), a global alliance of farmers associations, agreed on Monday to work with the UNCTAD secretariat on ways to help farmers in developing countries achieve greater predictability for their export earnings. Through the use of modern risk management tools, the negative effects of wild fluctuations in commodity price swings can be reduced significantly. The Central American economies are heavily dependant on earnings from coffee exports.
UNCTAD´s long standing work on commodity diversification will also be put to the service of the affected countries, so as to reduce their excessive dependence on one or two commodities that are usually exported in unprocessed form. In the medium term, such programmes can lessen the heavy economic costs of natural disasters such as Hurricane Mitch.
Another field in which UNCTAD, along with other parts of the UN system, will provide advice to the Central American countries concerned is in the reconstruction of their important tourism industries. A recent mandate from member States calls on UNCTAD´s Division on Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities to assist countries hit by man-made or natural disasters rebuild their tourism sectors. An assessment mission to the region is expected to be made shortly.
