The Trade and Development Board oversees the activities of the organization. It meets in Geneva up to three times a year in executive sessions to deal with urgent policy issues, as well as management and institutional matters.
Interdependence and development strategies in a globalized world
Deliberations under this agenda item will provide an opportunity to consider the Trade and Development Report 2026: The geoeconomics of development.
The report contains an examination of how the ongoing reorganization of the world economy, in which industrial, financial, trade and technological policies serve as instruments of geoeconomic competition, is reshaping the conditions for development.
Global growth declined in 2026 from its 2.9% level in 2025, yet trade and investment indicators suggest a world economy that has held its footing through policy uncertainty and trade volatility, buoyed by the boom in artificial intelligence. Robust headline figures nonetheless conceal divergence, fragmentation and growing financial fragilities.
Growth in the developing world is bifurcating, as import-dependent economies absorb energy and financial shocks with far less fiscal room, amid a third consecutive year of falling development assistance. Aggregate trade performance masks an ongoing remapping of trade patterns, in which market access becomes more differentiated and dependent on policy.
Amid the geoeconomic race, many countries in Africa and Latin America are increasingly locked out of development opportunities: for example, while Africa mines most of the world's cobalt, it retains under 1% of the value in green supply chains. At the same time, the current geoeconomic turn is opening space for sector-based profiles and regional consolidation by the rising power of countries of the global South.
Participation
The session is open to all member States of Trade and Development Board.
Other participants (i.e. representatives of members of UNCTAD that are not members of the Board, and representatives of specialized agencies, non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental bodies wishing to attend as observers) are also eligible to participate in the session as observers and should register online using the link provided.
Registration
Registration should be completed online and is required in order to be included in the list of participants.
Logistics
The session will be held with physical participation at the Palais des Nations. Those who cannot attend the meeting in person will be able to listen to the live audio stream in the six official languages of the United Nations.
The link to listen live will be sent to registered participants at the email address used for registration, one day in advance of the start of the session.
