With the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries a little more than a month away, the General Assembly convened today an interactive civil society hearing to explore ways grass-roots organizations could revive the global drumbeat on behalf of the world’s poorest countries and put pressure on Governments to honour their promises to deliver sustainable development for all.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

The following press statement was issued today by Security Council President Néstor Osorio (Colombia):

Moving closer to operationalizing the global reporting and assessment process on the state of the world’s marine environment, which was first called for by the 2002 Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, the General Assembly today adopted a consensus resolution requesting that the Secretary-General explore the establishment of appropriate means to address the communications requirements needed for the launch of such a process.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the visit to the Olkaria Geothermal Facility, in Naivasha, Kenya, 2 April:

The Secretary-General of the upcoming Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries called on Member States to intensify their efforts to forge a programme of action that would have concrete results in improving the lives of people in the poorest States, as he opened the second Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting for the Conference this morning.

Leading up to the launch of the International Year of Cooperatives in October 2011, the United Nations has released the official logo of the year based on the slogan, “Cooperative enterprises build a better world”.

The following statement by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was issued today, 4 April, on the situation in Côte d’Ivoire:

Despite an eleven-year stalemate in the Disarmament Commission over ways to achieve nuclear disarmament and wide scepticism that confidence-building measures in the field of conventional arms would also remain elusive, hope remained for achieving consensus on each item of that body’s painstakingly agreed agenda, said Sergio Duarte, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs as he opened the Commission’s 2011 substantive session.

While it was still very difficult to know how long it will take for conflict in Libya to be resolved, the responsibility for finding a solution lay with the Libyan people themselves, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy, Abdul Ilah al-Khatib, told the Security Council today during a briefing on his second mission to the country and other recent events there.