The Trade and Development Board,
Reaffirming that, in accordance with the Bridgetown Covenant, the UNCTAD intergovernmental machinery needs to provide orientation for future work of the secretariat, deliberate on governance issues, ensure due transparency, accountability and performance measurement of secretariat’s work, exchange on development issues and provide for policy dialogue and consensus-building (TD/541/Add.2, paragraph 27, bullet 3, and paragraph 118),
Recalling the need to meaningfully reinvigorate the role of UNCTAD as an important intergovernmental forum for consensus-building on trade and development (TD/541/Add.2, paragraph 110),
Reaffirming that reinvigoration of the UNCTAD intergovernmental machinery could further improve the effectiveness and concrete impact of UNCTAD, including its contribution to the work of the United Nations General Assembly,
Recognizing that this reinvigoration process requires in-depth discussions, based on agreed performance assessments, which should culminate in time to be reflected in the outcome of the sixteenth session of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development,
Emphasizing that this reinvigoration should be guided by the decisions captured in the Bridgetown Covenant, inter alia, paragraph 110 and paragraphs 118 to 123 (TD/541/Add.2),
- Decides to engage in the reinvigoration of the UNCTAD intergovernmental machinery, starting in the third quarter of 2023, to strengthen its decision-making and policy function, and its governance function, with the outcomes to be reflected in the sixteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development;
- Requests the UNCTAD secretariat to prepare a non-paper detailing the background of the work of the various levels of the UNCTAD intergovernmental machinery, to make arrangements for informal consultations, including through the support of relevant officials, and to inform of member States’ progress in this regard at upcoming sessions of the Trade and Development Board;
- Confirms that this reinvigoration will consider all levels and formats of the UNCTAD intergovernmental machinery;
- Confirms that the adoption of agreed conclusions, for the Trade and Development Board, could be part of the broader discussion on the reinvigoration of the UNCTAD intergovernmental machinery, and notes the desire of agreed conclusions on a substantive agenda item of the seventieth regular session of the Board, to assess the impact of such outcomes.
