We, the Executive Heads of the organizations of the United Nations system, reconfirm our support for the Doha Development Round, which has placed development at the heart of the multilateral trading system. We are resolved to work closely with the World Trade Organization to ensure the success of its forthcoming Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, China, as a stepping stone towards the conclusion of the round in 2006.
Please note: only publishing dates after March 2013 may be considered reliable.
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The United Nations system is unique in the range and coverage of its structures and mandates and in the diversity of the means of action that are at its disposal. These characteristics can be a unique source of strength in addressing the increasingly complex and interrelated challenges that the international community is facing.
The Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration created a new WTO aid-for-trade work programme to complement the conclusion of the Doha Development Round. WTO had, in that regard, been mandated to monitor and evaluate aid-for-trade so as to create more incentives through greater transparency in honouring commitments, meeting needs, improving effectiveness and reinforcing mutual accountability. With the onset of the implementation phase of that initiative, the full involvement of the United Nations system was required.
Over the 2006/07 period, CEB addressed a number of emerging and important programme issues with system-wide implications. Those included issues that required the development of a coordinated response from the United Nations, such as international migration and development, the midterm review of the Brussels Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries, and the cross-cutting issue of employment and decent work.
The Chief Executives Board considered the issue of trade capacity-building in the context of Trade Capacity-Building: Inter-Agency Resource Guide, a publication that was developed by the High-Level Committee on Programmes task force on economic development under the leadership of UNIDO. The guide is available online at the following URL: http://www.unido.org/en/doc/86537.
The Board considered the contribution that it could make to the aid-for-trade agenda. The Board was of the view that the United Nations system could help to facilitate the mainstreaming of aid-for-trade into national development strategies, given the work of the United Nations system in trade and its presence on the ground. The Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), at the CEB session of April 2007, suggested creating a CEB cluster on trade and productive capacity.
The Board reviewed the emerging global food price challenge and agreed on a common strategy in support of developing country governance to confront the crisis. CEB was of the view that the multifaceted challenge needed to be addressed in the short, medium and long term. The United Nations system would, in the short to medium term, cooperate in crisis response, development of emergency safety nets and social protection for the most vulnerable, and on rapid employment and income-generation programmes.
Employment toolkit; United Nations system action plan for the further implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries during the period 2007 2010; Aid for trade; Peacebuilding; Disaster reduction; Rights of persons with disabilities; UN-Energy, UN-Water and UN-Oceans; Trade capacity-building.
While Chief Executives Board considered a number of substantive programme issues during the reporting period, the issues of climate change and support to development in Africa featured high on the Board’s agenda. The nature and scope of those issues require that they be addressed through a coordinated and sustained effort that CEB is well positioned to provide.
The International Task Force on Commodities provides a comprehensive and systematic consultative framework, which enables the sharing of information and the use of complementary expertise among key actors involved in reviewing the commodity situation and in operating commodity markets.
At the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001, Trade Ministers adopted a Ministerial Declaration setting out a broad work programme for the WTO for the coming years. Known as the Doha Development Agenda,...
Ambassador Azevêdo holds degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Brasilia and in international relations from the Intstituto Rio Branco, the graduate school of international relations and diplomacy run by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations. He joined the Brazilian Foreign Service in 1984.
His first diplomatic posting was to Washington in 1988. He subsequently served in the Brazilian embassy in Montevideo before being assigned to the Permanent Mission of Brazil in Geneva in 1997.
Mukhisa Kituyi, of Kenya, who became UNCTAD's seventh Secretary-General on 1 September 2013, has an extensive background as an elected official, an academic, and a holder of high government office. He also has wide-ranging experience in trade negotiations, and in African and broader international economics and diplomacy.
The Trade Initiative monitors trade and investment developments to counter protectionism; regularly convene relevant stakeholders and prepare periodic reports on the situation of trade finance markets to foster transparency and best practices and ensure delivery of commitments.