(www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was established almost six decades ago in 1964. UNCTAD helps developing countries participate more equitably in the global economy.
Last year, difficult global crises re-appeared. The war in Ukraine, climate disasters, and the rising cost of living put to a stop the fragile post-COVID recovery witnessed in 2021. Food and energy prices skyrocketed to historic heights, increasing poverty and food insecurity to alarming levels. Rising interest rates worsened debt burdens, inviting capital flight and currency depreciation in the Global South. Climate disasters worsened, while rising geopolitics continued to disrupt the global trading system.
This world of ‘cascading crises’ called UNCTAD to rise to the challenge. In March 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres established the Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) on Food, Energy and Finance to help tackle the global development effects of the war in Ukraine. UNCTAD played a key role in the GCRG, co-chairing its Finance Track while coordinating its Task Team. As part of this effort and under the leadership of the UN Secretary General, UNCTAD became one of the main negotiators of the two Istanbul Agreements signed in July 2022, the Memorandum of Understanding between the UN and the Russian Federation to facilitate the unimpeded access for their food and fertilizers exports to global markets, and the Black Sea Initiative. These agreements have helped to bring down the cost of food, while stabilizing global markets and keeping them open.
Read more in the full report, below:
Source: UN
