P166 Short Course: Commodity Dependence and Development

​The UNCTAD secretariat is pleased to announce that a new series of short courses on key international economic issues for delegates from permanent missions to the United Nations Office at Geneva and the World Trade Organization will be held in the first semester of 2019.

The aim of the courses is to give delegates from permanent missions an opportunity to become better acquainted with topical issues and developments in the international economic agenda as they are reflected in the work of UNCTAD. Course descriptions are provided below.

This course will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will be delivered in English, with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic, French and Spanish. Courses will begin promptly at 10 a.m. to allow sufficient time for debate after the presentations.

The secretariat invites permanent missions to nominate delegates who follow matters pertaining to UNCTAD and/or the World Trade Organization to attend these courses.

Course applications may be completed online by using this link.

Commodity Dependence and Development
30 April 2019, room XXVI
Delivered in collaboration with the Division on International Trade and Commodities

The course will offer an overview of issues that commodity-dependent developing countries are faced with and how continued dependence on commodities will negatively affect these countries’ efforts towards meeting the SDGs, particularly SDGs 1, 2, 8, 9 and 10. Issues to be presented will include negative terms of trade, price volatility, commodity resource management, and macroeconomic challenges associated with commodity economies.

The objective of this short course will be to sensitize member states on the importance of commodities for their economies and the need to find long-term solutions to the problems afflicting the commodity sector in these countries. Solutions such as the widespread use of hedging instruments, and different forms of economic and export diversification, will be discussed.

Queries concerning the courses should be addressed to Ms. Randa Jamal, Project Coordinator,
Knowledge Development Branch, Division on Technology and Logistics, UNCTAD, tel: 41 22 917 2718, email: randa.jamal@unctad.org.