Economic issues

With the well-being of the world’s natural resources and physical environment hanging in the balance, senior officials from the five United Nations Regional Commissions shed light on their respective efforts to protect the populations and economies they served during an interactive dialogue with the Second Committee this afternoon on “regional perspectives on the economic impacts of climate change.”

Israel’s restriction of Palestinian movement and access to natural resources has deepened the hardship suffered by the Palestinians, Amr Nour, the director of the Regional Commissions New York Office told the Second Committee this afternoon.

Green growth would help mitigate climate change, it was good for the economy and the world had the money to fund it, several experts told the Second Committee today during a panel discussion on “Green growth and sustainable development.”

In a world where 1 billion people already suffered from chronic hunger, global food supplies must increase by 50 per cent to meet expected demand from a growing world population, the United States delegate told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today, as the Committee concluded its consideration of agriculture development and food security.

Five days after celebrating the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the international community still had a long way to go to erase the vast socio-economic inequities that existed from Argentina to Zimbabwe, several speakers told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today, as it began its consideration of the eradication of poverty and other development issues.

Illicit financial flows represented a major obstacle to development and estimates showed that such flows out of developing countries were eight to 10 times higher than all official development assistance coming in every year, Norway’s representative said today, as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) began its general debate on preventing and combating corrupt practices.

The international community must bolster technical and financial aid to least developed countries to prevent the current global crises from erasing the benefits of their record economic growth rates in recent years, Under-Secretary-General Cheick Sidi Diarra said today, as the Second Committee began its general debate on groups of countries in special situations.

Another half billion people face food insecurity because of climate change, Margareta Wahlström, Assistant Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today during a panel discussion on “Climate change: Impacts and threats".

Poor borrowers in India and Bolivia committed suicide in despair over heavy debt burdens accumulated because the regulatory framework for microfinance loans was not fully developed, Thomas McInerney, Director of the Research, Policy and Strategic Initiatives for the International Development Law Organization, told the Second Committee today during a panel discussion on “Legal Empowerment of the Poor and Eradication of Poverty”.

Donor countries needed to fulfil existing financial commitments to prevent developing countries, already suffering from the effects of the economic crisis, from backsliding further, delegates said today as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met to consider the follow-up to, and implementation of, the outcome of the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development and the 2008 Review Conference.