Issues to be addressed:
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The Accra Accord (para. 208) mandated the Trade and Development Board to establish a multi-year expert meeting on commodities.
The objective of the meeting is to enable commodity-dependent developing countries, in accordance with the Accra Accord (see para. 10), to harness development gains from the current boom in commodity prices, deal with trade and development challenges related to commodity dependence, derive increased benefits from the global integration of markets and meet the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (Accra Accord, paras. 77, 92 and 208).
The terms of reference established by the Trade and Development Board for the multi-year expert meeting on commodities are contained in document TD/B/55/9.
The multi-year expert meeting on commodities and development is expected to provide a forum for sharing country experiences with regard to benefiting and assuring development gains from the boom in commodity prices, as well as for examining information to assist countries in dealing with long-standing challenges of commodity dependence, including overcoming difficulties in diversification.
It will generate lessons learned from those experiences and, as provided for in paragraph 207 of the Accra Accord, identify "practical options and actionable outcomes" for addressing at the national, regional and international levels the opportunities and challenges of long-standing commodity trade and development issues, and assuring development gains from the boom in commodity prices.
Such options and outcomes may be in the form of "inventories of best practices, checklists, indicative guidelines, sets of criteria or principles, and model frameworks" (para. 207).
The multi-year expert meeting will also review and evaluate UNCTAD´s contribution to assisting developing countries in the area of commodities.
Inputs from experts Experts nominated by member States are encouraged to submit brief papers (approximately five pages) as contributions to the work of the meeting. The papers should be submitted to the UNCTAD secretariat in advance of the meeting and will be made available at the meeting in the form and language in which they are received. For more information, contact: Harmon C. ThomasHead, Special Unit on Commodities Tel.: +41 22 917 5647 |
