Presentation of Mr. William Calvo, Minister Counselor, Costa Rica at the Briefing to Member States for the High- Level Conference of MICs in Vienna, 21 March 2013

1. Open Dialogue
In preparation for the High-Level Conference of Middle-Income Countries in
San Jose, Costa Rica (12-14 June 2013)
“Challenges for Sustainable Development and International
Cooperation in Middle-Income Countries: The Role of Networks
for Prosperity”
Briefing

2. Date: March 6th, 2013
Place: Delegates Dining Room UN Headquarters
Panels:
•“Networks for Prosperity: Connecting Development
Knowledge Beyond 2015”
•“Challenges for Sustainable Development and
International Cooperation in Middle-Income Countries:
The Role of Networks for Prosperity”
Participants: 90 people 53 countries 13 organizations
Objective: to arrive to a set of recomendations for the
MICs Conference

3. Findings
• New geography of poverty. 65% poors live in MICs. Any policy has to take into account
this reality. MICs to play important role in the development agenda
• No more business as usual in order to achieve three dimensions of
sustainable development. Current patterns of production and consumption
are unsustainable. Huge economic gains when increasing resource efficiency
in production (USD 3-9 b.)
• In order to address current realities of MICs and other developing countries,
international development cooperation itself has to change. New actors such
as governments, international organizations, the private sector, academia,
and foundations, are about to leverage development outcomes through
knowledege and other assets.
• UNIDO connectedness expertise remains relevant in the Post-2015
development agenda. Mere access to knowledge through effective
networking does not equal action (ability to integrate and master new
knowledge, and act on it). Need to bild up absorptive capacities.

4. Findings
• UNIDO´s Networks for Prosperity Initiative and Green Industry Platform can
provide the foundation for a new innovative industrial policy built on the
network approach. Costa Rican experience valuable example to learn from
• Importance of private sector development and sustainable industrial
development in MICs. Reaffirmed significance of South-South, Triangular and
traditional cooperation for these purposes
• Welcomed the initiative of Costa Ricato host a MIC Conference. Pledged
support for the Conference and requested other countries to join into the
endeavour
• Further work needs to be done to fully operationalize network governance.
Participants asked UNIDO to redouble efforts in prividing data and analytical
inputs to advance in n.g.in te areas of environmental sustainability and
sustainable economic growth in MICs

5. Findings
• Importance of knowledge network that supports private sector development
and industrial development environmentally sustainable. This should be one
of the pillars of UNIDO´s work
• MIC´s special concerns need to be reflected int he Post-2015 development
agenda, building on the Madrid, El Salvador, Windhoek and Manila meetings.
A series of global/regional MIC policy dialogues should be created
• The Open Dialogue recognized the challenges ahead and the unfinished
agenda of private sector development and sustainable industrial
development in MICs and welcomed the planned series of Open Dialogues to
prepare the key themes of the MIC Conference

6. Conclusions
• Active engagement from Permanent Missions and international organizations
in the efforts undertaken by the Government of Costa Rica
• Relevance of topics has been highlighted by participants
• Confirmations

7. Conclusions
• Active engagement from Permanent Missions and international organizations
in the efforts undertaken by the Government of Costa Rica
• Relevance of topics has been highlighted by participants
• Confirmations