Meetings Coverage

DOHA, QATAR, 23 April — Change in favour of equitable and sustainable development in the Arab world and around the globe must be achieved by women working side by side with men at all levels, Qatar Museums Authority Chairperson Sheikha Al Mayyasa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said today as the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) held a high-level event on “Women in Development”.

DOHA, QATAR, 22 April — Policies that effectively harnessed entrepreneurship and maximized investment were vital for restarting sluggish economic engines and boosting growth potential in developing countries, Government officials and heads of international organizations said this afternoon during a round table discussion at the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) in Doha, Qatar.

DOHA, QATAR, 22 April — The global financial crisis could continue to plague both developing and developed countries for a long time unless market-based orthodoxies were questioned and resources better directed towards sustainable growth and development, experts said during today’s first round table of the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) in Doha, Qatar.

DOHA, QATAR, 22 April — Speakers at a special session of the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) today emphasized the importance of taking an integrated approach to the world’s financial institutions, in which trade was addressed alongside investment, development and other key issues.

DOHA, QATAR, 21 April — In the wake of the global financial crisis, it was important for the international community to be “inventive and courageous” in considering optimal economic models in their efforts to create a stable economic culture that would produce equitable growth, the incoming President of the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) said in Doha, Qatar, today.

With the world in the midst of an economic recovery that was “fragile at best”, bold ideas were required to transform the path and process of globalization so that countries buffeted by the global financial crisis could gain relief through more equitable growth, improved market access, scaled-up investment and other forms of cooperation, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today in a message to the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Welcoming the recent agreement by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to exchange letters and expressing hope such moves would maintain positive momentum towards resuming peace negotiations, B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said today it was now important to transform that fragile opening into an opportunity to incrementally promote dialogue, as he briefed the Security Council on the latest developments in the region, including on the question of Palestine.

Acknowledging the unusually large attendance at the forty-fifth session of the Commission on Population and Development, which opened today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the turnout told only part of the story; the real message was the energy of the session and the presence of so many young people.

Through the strategic use of resources, digital technologies, social media platforms and enhanced partnerships with United Nations system offices and external media outlets, the Department of Public Information was expanding and improving the way it conveyed the United Nations message worldwide, the Organization’s senior communications official told the Committee on Information as it opened its annual session this morning.

Noting that the cessation of armed violence in Syria was “clearly incomplete”, and concerned about its recent escalation, the Security Council today beefed up the United Nations monitoring team of unarmed observers to that country authorized last weekend, subject to the Secretary-General’s assessment of relevant developments on the ground.