The Trade and Development Board,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 70/1 of 25 September 2015, entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, and in particular Sustainable Development Goal 17, which recognizes that the United Nations is one of many actors that can help countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and that partnerships with Governments, the private sector, civil society and others are essential,
Recalling the role of UNCTAD as the focal point in the United Nations systems for the integrated treatment of trade and development and interrelated issues in the areas of finance, technology, investment and sustainable development,
Noting the United Nations Secretary-General’s report released on 30 June 2017, entitled “Repositioning the United Nations development system to deliver on the 2030 Agenda: ensuring a better future for all”, which states “our shared objective is a United Nations that fully delivers on its mandates, with a focus on results and a culture of collaboration”,[1]
Noting the UNCTAD report, From Actions to Results: Implementation of the Nairobi Maafikiano in a Changing Environment,[2] which “seeks to position UNCTAD by translating into practice the organization’s strengths and advantages, including what differentiates it from, and allows it to complement, the work of other organizations”,
Further noting that the global conference on Sustainable Development Goal 7 and the high-level political forum on sustainable development will be held, respectively, in Bangkok and New York, with a review of Goal 7,
- Welcomes the UNCTAD The Least Developed Countries Report 2017: Transformational Energy Access,[3] and commends it for the quality of its analysis, the pertinence of its policy recommendations and the timeliness of the choice of its topic;
- Recognizes that universal access to efficient and affordable energy remains a vital link to all dimensions of development; energy plays a key role in enabling the structural transformation of least developed country economies, which, in turn, is required for these countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals; Goal 7 is therefore an enabler of several other Goals;
- Acknowledges the idea of transformational energy access, that is, access that ensures not only the basic needs of households, but also the quantitative and qualitative needs of productive and public uses and therefore allows for the structural transformation of economies; this type of access entails meeting producers’ energy needs in terms of accessibility, scale, reliability, economic viability, affordability and efficiency; the analysis contained in the report provides a valuable guideline for policymakers;
- Concurs with the idea that decisive progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 7 in the least developed countries requires establishing an energy-transformation nexus, whereby productive use of energy can help to provide the demand needed for investments in energy infrastructure to be viable, both directly and by generating additional incomes which boost household demand;
- Recognizes that, for the least developed countries to reach Sustainable Development Goal 7, a fundamental challenge will be ensuring universal access also in rural areas; welcomes UNCTAD analysis of the energy-transformation nexus as applied to rural areas, which entails the structural transformation and diversification of rural economies;
- Recognizes that harnessing all available renewable energy resources and adopting renewable energy technologies, including decentralized generation, offer an unprecedented opportunity to bring electricity even to the remotest areas of the least developed countries, but achieving this, and realizing the potential benefits for development, requires a very deliberate effort, especially in terms of developing energy systems that meet producers’ needs and adopting complementary policies to promote productive use of electricity;
- Recalls that, in order to reap the potential benefits of technological innovation in the field of energy generation, transmission and distribution through grids, mini-grids and off-grid connections, the least developed countries need additional support from the international community, in terms of trade, finance, technology and capacity development, which matches the ambition of the Sustainable Development Goals;
- Appreciates the analysis of gender aspects of energy and development, highlighting that improved energy access can reduce time spent on domestic activities and improve business opportunities and productive capacity for women;
- Acknowledges the vast investment needs of the least developed countries to reach Sustainable Development Goal 7, and welcomes the policy analysis and recommendations on this subject contained in the UNCTAD The Least Developed Countries Report 2017: Transformational Energy Access;
- Acknowledges the need for strengthening good governance at all levels, and enhancing legal frameworks for boosting investment in energy infrastructure;
- Welcomes the operationalization of the Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries in September 2017, and encourages development partners, including the private sector, academia and foundations, to make voluntary contributions to support the Technology Bank in order that it effectively fosters the building of technological capacities by the least developed countries;
- Calls on UNCTAD to strengthen its efforts in the dissemination of its research findings and in policy dialogue with policymakers of the least developed countries and their development partners, and encourages the secretariat to actively assess how The Least Developed Countries Report contributes to the organization’s long-term efforts to assist the least developed countries, including through the development of follow-up and implementation strategies; calls on the President of the Trade and Development Board, or his nominee, to present the findings and recommendations of the report during the global conference on Sustainable Development Goal 7, to be held at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations in Bangkok on 21–23 February 2018, and the high-level political forum on sustainable development, to be held on 9–18 July 2018 in New York, at United Nations Headquarters, subject to the availability of resources;
- Requests that future The Least Developed Countries Reports should remain within the mandate of UNCTAD.
[1] A/72/124-E/2018/3.
[2] UNCTAD/2017/1.
[3] UNCTAD/LDC/2017.
