UNCTAD marks 50th anniversary

This year marks a significant milestone for UNCTAD as it celebrates its fiftieth anniversary.

Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi said, "It is auspicious that UNCTAD's fiftieth anniversary takes place at a time when the global community rallies toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and seeks to respond to people's aspirations by setting the development agenda beyond 2015."

Through various events being held to mark its fiftieth anniversary, UNCTAD aims to stimulate deep reflection on development issues and to listen to and talk with its main partners.

In this year's annual UNCTAD flagship reports and being packed with fresh insights and the latest data, special emphasis is put on the fifty-year history of the organisation.

Each report will have a principal launch in Geneva, with Dr. Kituyi presiding at the initial press conference. Other press conferences will be held in strategic locations around the world.

The World Investment Report 2014 presents the latest trends in foreign direct investment and provides key economic intelligence for policy makers. The report focuses on how corporations can contribute to the realisation of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals through additional and innovative financing, investment and responsible business practices.

The Economic Development in Africa Report 2014: Accelerating investment for transformative growth in Africa shows that there are structural problems associated with the pattern of growth in Africa from a demand and supply perspective, and that these need to move away from consumption to coherent investment-led growth.

The annual Report on UNCTAD Assistance to the Palestinian People, critically analyses key developments in the economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and its long-term prospects, as well as focusing on Israeli policies and related obstacles to trade and development in the OPT.

The Trade and Development Report 2014, reflecting on fifty years of UNCTAD, but also seventy years since the Bretton Woods Conference, rethinks global development from a historical perspective and looks beyond the MDGs to the development agenda after 2015. It examines the role of the State in developing countries and asks how they can provide policy space for trade and finance decision-making in the future.

The Technology and Innovation Report 2014: Promoting Innovation Policies for Industrial Development, focuses on how innovation policies can promote industrial development, and what lessons can be learnt from developing and developed countries by arguing that while technology and innovation are essential to how industries use knowledge, their role in economic development can only be harnessed if innovation policies are coherently linked to countries' industrial goals.

The Commodities and Development Report 2014: Inclusive and Sustainable Commodity Development: The Case of Smallholder Farmers, shows that, like other economic agents, smallholders respond to incentives. Given the right environment, they make substantial contributions to food security, nutrition, job creation, cash crop production, and sustainable agricultural development. The report is due for publication at the beginning of October 2014.

The Least Developed Countries Report 2014 will evaluate the progress that LDCs have made towards the MDGs and conclude that none of these countries is likely to reach most of them. This is because the recent growth of many LDCs has not been accompanied by structural transformation and needs a shift toward higher productivity sectors - a theme that has been at the heart of UNCTAD's development thinking since its inception.

The Review of Maritime Transport 2014 will include a special chapter on small island developing states, many of which are confronted with rising sea-levels and low levels of liner shipping connectivity. Having been published annually since 1968, the Review of Maritime Transport is UNCTAD's oldest flagship publication.

This year's edition is due for publication in November.