Meetings Coverage

Placing the world’s 48 poorest countries on a path to more dynamic development and enabling half of them to meet the criteria for graduation from “least-developed” status by 2020 required global solidarity in implementing favourable trade policies for their exports, as well as programmes to help them increase agricultural productivity and diversity, speakers emphasized this afternoon during a special high-level event in Doha, Qatar.

In the context of the current global financial crisis and the shifting geography of growth dynamics, Member States should embark upon “concerted and coherent” action to address current and future development challenges, experts said this morning as the Thirteenth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) held its third round table discussion in Doha.

The Security Council could play an important role in addressing the obstacles that women faced in being informed about — and participating in — formal conflict resolution, especially by encouraging mediators to pay more attention to gender issues, Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Women, said today, as she briefed the 15-member body on recent developments in the area of women, peace and security.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations mission in Western Sahara until 30 April 2013.

“It’s a fool’s paradise to believe that by controlling the lives of adolescents and young people, and denying them health-promoting — and perhaps life-saving — information and services, we are preserving our old way of life, or protecting the young from the dangers of the modern world,” one of among 40 speakers told the Commission on Population and Development today.

The need to fully institute multilingualism in the Organization’s information services, shore up the network of the United Nations Information Centres and increase the cost-effectiveness of the Department of Public Information were among the priority issues put forth today by delegates, as the Committee on Information continued its general debate this afternoon.

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.