South Centre
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Volume 1 Edition 2 ¦May 2006
Geneva , May 2006: South Centre: New Publications for the UNCTAD Mid Term Review: The South Center released two new papers on the UNCTAD Mid Term Reviews: Operationalising the Concept of Policy Space n the UNCTAD XI Mid-Term Review Context (May 2006) and Enhancing Positive Corporate Contributions to Development: Making corporate responsibility for development operational in the UNCTAD XI MTR context.
Volume 1 Edition 1 ¦May 2006
Geneva , April 2006: Strengthening the UN Conference on Trade and Development: A key issue to emerge for developing countries has been to secure a renewed role for the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), amongst attempts to dilute, supplant or subsume its mandate. In April, the South Centre released a paper called “Reinventing UNCTAD.” The paper was prepared by Professor Muchkund Dubey, at the request of, and in close collaboration with Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Chairman of the Board of the South Centre, for submission to the Panel of Eminent Persons. The paper examines the development of UNCTAD since its inception in 1964, and proposes possible steps for reform. The paper looks at UNCTAD's mandate, its achievements and its decline.
South Centre: New Publications for the UNCTAD Mid Term Review
Volume 1 Edition 2 | May 2006
Operationalising the Concept of Policy Space n the UNCTAD XI Mid-Term Review Context (May 2006)
This South Centre Analysis provides a brief historical overview of the development of the concept of “policy space” for development in international forums and tries to suggest ways on how, in the context of the UNCTAD XI Mid-Term Review process, UNCTAD can make such concept operational through its policy analysis and recommendations to developing countries.
Full Text: Internet: http://www.southcentre.org/info/Analysis/PolicySpaceUNCTADXI.pdf
Enhancing Positive Corporate Contributions to Development: Making corporate responsibility for development operational in the UNCTAD XI MTR context (May 2006): This South Centre Analysis provides a discussion of the concept of corporate responsibility for development, existing initial initiatives in this area, and the need for UNCTAD to ensure that its mandate coming from UNCTAD XI to undertake work in this area results in substantive outcomes.
Full Text: Internet: http://www.southcentre.org/info/Analysis/CSRUNCTADXI.pdf
Source: South Centre, 2006; Internet: http://www.southcentre.org/
Strengthening the UN Conference on Trade and Development
Volume 1 Edition 1 | May 2006
A key issue to emerge for developing countries has been to secure a renewed role for the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In October 2005, UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi established a Panel of Eminent Persons to propose new strategies for the organisation aimed at heightening its impact. The Panel will advise the Secretary-General of UNCTAD on how to enhance UNCTAD´s development role and impact. In February 2006, the Group of 77 developing countries adopted the Paris Consensus, reiterating the importance of UNCTAD as the principal organisation within the UN system for an integrated treatment of trade and development and commits developing countries to work for its institutional revival, promote its work on operationalising important concepts such as policy space and corporate social responsibility, and to invigorate its intergovernmental machinery with a view to encouraging consensus building and making soft law to facilitate rule making in WTO and other organisations. In April, the South Centre released a paper called “Reinventing UNCTAD.” The paper was prepared by Professor Muchkund Dubey, at the request of, and in close collaboration with Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Chairman of the Board of the South Centre, for submission to the Panel of Eminent Persons. The paper examines the development of UNCTAD since its inception in 1964, and proposes possible steps for reform. The paper looks at UNCTAD's mandate, its achievements and its decline. It also makes a case for revitalising UNCTAD, and makes suggestions on how this can be achieved. The paper provides a set of overarching recommendations including: Need for alternative views and intellectual pluralism; Civil society organisations and UNCTAD; Revival of UNCTAD's negotiating role; Taking an over-all integrated view of global economic issues; UNCTAD's role as a centre for harmonising trade and development policy; South-South Cooperation, including GSTP; UNCTAD in Technical Assistance; Aid for Trade; Domestic measures for development vs. external environment for development; UNCTAD in the area of finance; UNCTAD and UN reforms; Securing UNCTAD's mandate; and Role of the Group of 77 in reinventing UNCTAD.
Source: South Centre, 2006: Reinventing UNCTAD;
IUCN-World Conservation Union
ieg-dossier coverage
Volume 1 Edition 2 ¦May 2006
New York , 25 April 2006: IUCN-World Conservation Union : Statement to the Informals on Environment: S tatement delivered by Special Advisor for Global Policy, Dr. Andrew M. Deutz, to the informal consultations of the plenary on environment the IUCN.
IUCN-World Conservation Union: Statement to the Informals on Environment
Volume 1 Edition 2 | May 2006
New York, 25 April 2006: In a statement delivered by the Special Advisor for Global Policy, Dr. Andrew M. Deutz, to the informal consultations of the plenary on environment the IUCN remarked that “the key criterion for measuring the success of our deliberations is the extent to which the outcomes and decisions promote the mainstreaming of environmental sustainability: mainstreaming in UN operational activities at the country level; mainstreaming in national development strategies; mainstreaming in donor assistance frameworks; and mainstreaming in developed countries' economic and social policies.” The IUCN also drew attention to the UNEP Governing Council Decision 23/11 on mainstreaming gender in environmental decision-making and implementation.
The IUCN statement highlights five key areas for UN reform. First, they called for strengthening the financial base of UNEP in particular and of the UN system's capacity to mainstream environmental sustainability across all of its operations more generally. Second, the IUCN suggested the need to address institutional coherence, and called attention to the thinking and inputs that went in to the Cartagena package. Noting the legal complexities of coordinating multiple and separate legal personalities of the MEAs, the IUC said there were a range of practical proposals on the table that could further discussed. Third, the IUCN called for a hard look at the interagency processes, in particular the need to revitalise the Environmental Management Group and the role of UNEP in the UN Development Group. Fourth, Duets identified the need to consider ways to strengthen regional and sub-regional processes for environmental cooperation. Fifth he suggested “a hard look at ways to strengthen the monitoring and assessment capacity of UNEP. UNEP should have a real value-added in this regard, given its existing involvement in the IPCC, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, its GEO reports, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and now the proposed Environment Watch framework. At this point, we should focus on assessing the needs for and functions of enhanced scientific assessments to support environmental sustainability and other development goals. On the basis of such a needs assessment, we should move on to explore the institutional arrangements and capacities to meet those needs, in a step-wise fashion.”
Source: IUCN, 2006
Internet: http://www.iucn.org/en/news/archive/2006/05/iucn_unga_statement.pdf