UNCTAD to tackle inequality through trade and development

There is a broad realisation by society today, that unsustainable economic practices leading to the over-accumulation of wealth are not only unfair, but can bring stagnation and conflict, UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi told the sixty-first session of the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board Meeting on Monday.

Dr. Kituyi was addressing global inequality and how it can be tackled by the global development agenda that will replace the Millennium Development Goals at the end of 2015.

"The proposal for the sustainable development goals, which will soon be taken up by United Nations Members in New York, also reflect this realisation with proposed Goal 10 on reducing inequality within and among countries by 2030," he said.

The Trade and Development Board - which oversees UNCTAD operations from year-to-year - opened its sixty-first session ( September 15-26) with the election of Ambassador Ana Maria Menéndez Pérez of Spain as its president.

The Board's deliberations included presentations by Minister of Trade and Industry of South Africa, Rob Davies, Giovanni Andrea Cornia of the University of Florence and senior economist at the International Labour Organisation, Sangheon Lee.

Davies said that inequality between and within developed and developing countries could be tackled by restructuring global economic relationships to allow for active policies for inclusive growth on the part of developing countries in Africa and elsewhere.

Dr. Kituyi said, "The new global economy has brought with it immense hopes but equally immense inequities.

In the past 50 years, we have seen promising declines in inequality between countries as some developing countries have experienced strong growth and have begun to close the gap between themselves and the richest countries.

But compared to 50 years ago, today inequality within countries has risen in a startling number of countries - both rich and poor." Earlier, Dr. Kituyi told the Trade and Development Board that he welcomed the fact that the emerging post-2015 agenda was likely to include trade as a means of achieving the sustainable development goals.

Dr. Kituyi said that UNCTAD was well placed to make a contribution to the "ambitious and transformative" new agenda.

"Our research can offer the facts needed to overcome differences, our consensus-building can facilitate dialogue and our technical cooperation can help us to work together to build capacities, particularly in support of the most vulnerable countries," he said.