News

By David Bicchetti, Carlos Razo and Miho Shirotori

By Paul Akiwumi, Director for Africa and Least Developed Countries, UNCTAD

Written by Pamela Coke Hamilton, Director of the Division on International Trade and Commodities and Janvier Nkurunziza, Commodity Research and Analysis Section

Written byDr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD

Value-addition and diversification high on the agenda - with priority given to female smallholder farmers and traders.

An UNCTAD analysis of African food trade identified tea and potatoes as good examples of how agricultural "value chains" can be built on the continent.

The Economic Development in Africa Report 2013 subtitled "Intra-African Trade: Unlocking Private Sector Dynamism" focuses on how to strengthen the private sector to boost intra-African trade. It also examines the challenges for intra-African trade posed by non-implementation of regional trade agreements and provides new insights into how to enhance implementation of existing regional agreements.

Ambassador Mukhtar Tileuberdi (Kazakhstan), President of UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Board, has told a high-level meeting in New York that UNCTAD’s theme of development-centred globalization is central to ensuring progress in the coming years.​

The strategy, developed in partnership with the Government of Comoros, focuses on achieving food self-sufficiency, improving the country's access to international markets, and finding the Comoros' place in regional markets.

High prices for basic farm goods and industrial raw materials, with the complex effects that these cause on the economies of numerous poor countries, are not expected to decline any time soon, the Global Commodities Forum has been told.