Brussels, 27/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The EU wants the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to play an “important role” in its work until 2020 on the implementation and monitoring of the 2030 sustainable development agenda and Addis Ababa action agenda on funding development. Furthermore, the EU advocates putting gender equality objectives at the centre of UNCTAD's work. This is the main thrust of the conclusions adopted by the European development ministers on Monday 26 October, ahead of the 14th session of UNCTAD (which is due to set out its work programme for 2016-2020).
In the EU's view, UNCTAD should make use of its long-standing expertise in capacity strengthening, policy dialogue and research analysis to support the achievement of specific objectives connected to the sustainable development goals (SDG) - taking account in particular of environmental sustainability and climate change issues. UNCTAD should also help its member states define inclusive and sustainable development strategies in the areas of trade and development, investment, finance and technology.
The EU encourages UNCTAD to place gender equality, and women's and girls' empowerment at the centre of its work - with the 2030 sustainable development agenda and the Addis Ababa action agenda offering a “real and unique opportunity” for this. The EU also asks UNCTAD to focus on promoting entrepreneurship among women, and to support efforts to improve access to finance and services aimed at micro-enterprises and SMEs.
Supporting UNCTAD's main focus on the most vulnerable economies, in particular the least developed countries (LDCs), the EU encourages UNCTAD to pay attention to the situation of landlocked developing countries, small island developing states, African economies and fragile states.
The EU also encourages UNCTAD to provide research work on integrating micro-enterprises and SMEs in developing countries into global and regional value chains. In addition, it encourages foreign direct investment, maritime transport, trade facilitation, trade in services and in commodities, competition law, consumer protection and information and communications technology.
Furthermore, the EU encourages UNCTAD to foster the development of relations between emerging economies and developing countries; to enhance cooperation between the private and public sector and further encourage the participation of the private sector in the economies of developing countries; and to enhance its cooperation with other UN and international organisations (the ILO and WTO, and OECD respectively). In addition, the EU asks UNCTAD to take account of the texts agreed at future international conferences - especially the texts from the UN conference on climate change (COP 21) in December. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)