Delegations expressed appreciation for the quality of UNCTAD's work in support of Africa at the 55th executive session of the Trade and Development Board on 3rd July.
The Board discussed the Secretariat's report of activities undertaken by UNCTAD in support of Africa (TD/B/EX(55)/2) in all the three pillars of UNCTAD's work: research and policy analysis, consensus-building and technical cooperation.
There was a suggestion that UNCTAD should organize informal workshops and brainstorming sessions with member States in order to contribute to the post-2015 development agenda, particularly on issues of special interest to Africa.
It was also acknowledged that technical cooperation programmes such as TrainForTrade, Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA), Debt Management and Financial Analysis System (DMFAS), and Empretec have proved to be very useful to beneficiary countries. UNCTAD was requested to increase its country coverage of such programmes.
The Secretariat used this first Executive Session following the conclusion of UNCTAD XIII as an opportunity to briefly share with member States its views on the implementation of the work programme on Africa, as provided for in the Doha Mandate, over the coming years.
The Secretariat stressed that UNCTAD will put greater emphasis on prioritization, focus, and pragmatic approaches in resource use. Greater inter-divisional collaboration will be encouraged in view of the limited resources available in individual divisions. Moreover, there will be more dissemination of UNCTAD's work on Africa, and efforts will be made to improve evaluation of its impact within the available resources.
