Monthly Archive: July 2016

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UNCTAD 14: Nairobi “Maafikiano” barely saves minimal finance and development mandates

Due to UNCTAD’s decidedly pro-South and uncompromising development-focused mission, its quadrennial conferences have traditionally been North –South showdowns. Coming a few months after the adoption of the ambitious and universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 associated goals, the theme of the XIV Quadrennial Conference of UNCTAD (the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) was “From Decisions to Actions.” There was, therefore, reason to expect that this time members would bridge their differences for the sake of reinforcing mandates of the organization critical to the Agenda’s implementation. But that was not the case. Read more…

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The Next United Nations Secretary General Town Hall Debate

In 2016, the UN is searching for a successor to Ban Ki-Moon as the next Secretary General. Over the years, several initiatives have urged reforms regarding the UN Secretary General election process. In this spirit, the President of the General Assembly together with Al-Jazeera organized a town hall debate with the candidates on 12 July. Read more…

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The 2030 Agenda requires mobilization of resources, some of which are considered hidden due to lack of policies. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2014 estimated that: US$5–7 trillion a year is needed to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the action plan of the 2030 Agenda. The Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF) calculated US$80–90 trillion in untapped assets for investment and offered blended financing as a major vehicle for ‘crowding in’ corporate funds. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohamed said in her first address as DS-G in New York: “Bringing partnerships and agencies together in a coherent and more coordinated manner will further leverage resources and different partnerships in a mobile [development] agenda, this is becoming more complex but it is bringing in more returns.” Is this sustainable development or business development?

 

The final unedited version of the Secretary-General’s report on the repositioning of the UN development system, as a follow-up to General Assembly resolution 71/243 on the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review of United Nations operational activities for development (QCPR), offers the Secretary-General’s vision on the repositioning of the UN development system to effectively support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and responds to the mandates contained in GA/RES/71/243 due by June 2017. The report is the product of extensive consultations with Member States, the UN development system and other stakeholders, and has benefited from in-depth analysis of relevant studies and data on the system’s present functions and capacities to support the 2030 Agenda. Per operative paragraph 45, the Joint Inspection Unit was consulted on options for improving the accountability and overall coordination of the entities of the United Nations development system and their oversight by Member States found at https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/sg-report-jiu-contribution.pdf. The Secretary-General’s report and all relevant documents are also available on the QCPR website at  https://www.un.org/ecosoc/en/node/1213351. A consultants report was supplementally released found at https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/sg-report-dalberg_unds-outline-of-functions-and-capacities-june-2017.pdf.