THE United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) will mark its 60th anniversary with a Global Leaders Forum on June 12 and 13 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland under the theme: “Charting a new development course in a changing world.”
The forum will unite leaders from across countries and industries to catalyze a new course for development, according to a statement from the agency.
Secretary-General António Guterres of the UN will open the two-day event, which will unite heads of state and institutions, representatives of governments and civil society, as well as leading economists and experts.
Participants from across the globe will convene to advance new development thinking and actions in the current era of “polyglobalization” marked by growing economic diversity and decentralization, even as countries become ever-more interdependent at a global level.
“As we adapt to changing times, charting a new development course provides a framework for building a future that is resilient, equitable and sustainable,” said Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan of UNCTAD.
In exploring new strategies for development, the forum will focus on UNCTAD’s integrated treatment of trade and development, and the interrelated issues of finance, technology, investment and sustainable development. It will pay special attention to the needs of developing nations, particularly the least-developed countries, small-island developing states, and landlocked developing countries.
Facing development challenges
IN the sixty years since UNCTAD’s creation, the world economy has seen the rise of the Global South, the creation of a vast digital economy, and unprecedented reductions in global poverty and hunger.
The past decades, however, have also witnessed worsening inequalities within and among countries, more frequent boom and bust trade and finance cycles, and a growing threat of climate catastrophe, especially in the countries that have done the least to cause it.
The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the world’s diminishing capacity to recover inclusively from crises—evident in rising poverty and hunger, leading to consecutive reductions in the Human Development Index.
The systems of global economic governance have not kept pace with these shifts, leading to a contradiction at the heart of globalization. This can be measured in ever-more frequent crises meeting ever-weaker international responses, a worrying trend toward economic slowdown and geopolitical fragmentation, and a world system that simultaneously connects and divides, enriches and impoverishes, empowers and marginalizes.