Relationship with other international organizations
As the focal point for the integrated treatment of trade and development, UNCTAD interacts and cooperates with a variety of other organizations within and outside the United Nations system. These include the following:
UNCTAD and WTO have been joining forces to ensure a better functioning of the multilateral trading system. In April 2003, the organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding providing for cooperation and consultations on their technical assistance activities and for the conduct of joint studies on selected issues. UNCTAD and WTO interact frequently, and the intergovernmental processes in both organizations are often attended by the same Government representatives.
The ITC is jointly sponsored by UNCTAD and WTO for operational, enterprise-oriented aspects of trade development, with an emphasis on trade promotion. In contrast to UNCTAD, whose technical assistance is primarily tailored to Governments, ITC’s technical assistance focuses on assisting businesses in developing countries. Both UNCTAD and WTO are represented in the Joint Advisory Group supervising ITC’s work, and UNCTAD has a number of joint technical assistance activities with ITC.
UN Regional Commissions and UNDP
UNCTAD cooperates with these international entities on a project-by-project basis, be it in relation to research projects, joint workshops and seminars, or technical assistance. Since UNCTAD has no representatives in the field, the UNDP country offices are also used to support UNCTAD activities in various countries.
Quick links: | ECA | ECLAC | ESCAP | ESCWA | UNECE | UNDP |
Bretton Woods institutions (International Monetary Fund and World Bank)
The World Bank and UNCTAD cooperate in the delivery of some technical assistance and capacity-building programmes. The UNCTAD secretariat, through the Debt Management–DMFAS programme, is also an active member of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Finance Statistics, which is chaired by the IMF. The three agencies also cooperate in organizing seminars. UNCTAD attends the biannual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, and both institutions participate in UNCTAD’s intergovernmental meetings.
Quick Links: | IMF | World Bank |
Other intergovernmental bodies
In addition to the organizations of the UN system, a total of 111 other intergovernmental bodies have gained accreditation as observers to UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Board.
Relationships with civil society
Academia
As a knowledge-based institution with intensive research activities, UNCTAD interacts with academics all over the world. Academics collaborate in research projects and the publication of papers and participate in expert meetings of the various Commissions of the Trade and Development Board.
UNCTAD’s Digital Library makes a wide range of UNCTAD documents easily available to researchers and academic institutions. UNCTAD has also established a network of research links and research partnerships with universities.
The UNCTAD XI conference will see the launch of a new initiative for better cooperation among UNCTAD and academic institutions. The UNCTAD Virtual Institute on Trade and Development is an Internet-based portal that will make UNCTAD’s research and a wide range of generic training modules available to academic institutions. It will also establish a network of selected academic institutions working on trade and development issues to share their own country-specific training materials and curricula.
Non-governmental organizations
UNCTAD recognizes the important role that civil society groups can play in achieving sustainable development. As is the case for the United Nations as a whole, accredited NGOs are granted observer status at UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Board and at the quadrennial ministerial conferences. To date, 192 international and 20 national NGOs have gained observer status with the Trade and Development Board.
At UNCTAD X (in Bangkok in February 2000), more than 120 NGOs participated and made an essential contribution to the Plan of Action agreed to at the conference. A similarly important role was played by NGOs during the Third UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries conference in Brussels in 2001. To better enable civil society to contribute to UNCTAD’s work, the secretariat has established a Civil Society Outreach Newsletter.
UNCTAD also collaborates with NGOs at an operational level. In 1998, UNCTAD was one of the first UN agencies to envisage the inclusion of civil society organizations in its work in a structured manner, by organizing a “Partnership for Development” meeting in Lyon (France). This meeting gave numerous representatives of trade- and development-related NGOs the opportunity to exhibit their work and to forge partnerships with UNCTAD on individual projects. UNCTAD has also carried out joint studies with a variety of NGOs.
To further extend UNCTAD’s cooperation with civil society, Partnership for development has been made one of the four subthemes of UNCTAD XI. The conference is expected to launch multi-stakeholder partnerships covering a wide variety of activities under UNCTAD’s mandate and responding to the needs of developing countries in the following areas:
- information and communication technologies for development
- solving the problems of the commodities sector
- maximizing the benefits of foreign direct investment
- capacity building and training
Quick Links: | UNCTAD XI and Civil Society Organizations |