The document discusses a study conducted on the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It provides objectives of the study which include understanding UNCTAD's objectives, areas of work, meetings, relationship with other agencies, and advantages. It then provides an introduction on increasing globalization and challenges faced by developing countries. It outlines UNCTAD's history, organization structure, main areas of work, objectives, meetings, and the New International Economic Order concept.

1. A study on
United Nations Conference On
Trade And Development (UNCTAD)
Presented by: Presented to:
• Kashyap Makwana Dr. Y. C. Joshi
• Sanidhya Singh
• Shikha Karamchandani
G H Patel Post Graduate Institute of Business Management

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
• To study the objectives of UNCTAD
• To study the main areas of work of UNCTAD
• To study the main tenets of various meetings of UNCTAD
• To study New International Economic Order (NIEO)
• To study the relationship of UNCTAD with other agencies.
• To study the advantages of UNCTAD

3. INTRODUCTION
• Globalization has increased the integration of international markets and the
interdependence of countries worldwide for a wide range of services and
commodities.
• There has been growing concerns about the place of developing countries in
international trade and development amidst continuous technological
innovation and cut-throat competition.
• And are still hugely challenged in having to deal with the backlog of
underdevelopment, poverty and infrastructure deficit in a sustained manner.
• We have conducted this study to understand how UNCTAD helps in
alleviating these challenges that the underdeveloped and developing
countries face.

4. CONTINUE…
 Established in 1964.
 The head office is situated at Geneva, Switzerland.
 194 member countries.
 Staff: 400 employees.
 Budget: bi-annual budget of $210 million
 The Secretary GeneraI of UNCTAD is Dr. Supachai
Panitchpakdi of Thailand.

5. LITERATURE REVIEW
India retains 3rd spot on Unctad list of investment destinations
- October 07, 2016 (Economic Times)
• India has retained its position as the third most preferred investment destination
behind the US and China
• Global FDI flows droped to between $1.5 and $1.6 trillion in 2016, a fall of 10%
to 15% from 2015, before recovering in 2017 and 2018," Unctad said
• Domestic demand largely drives India’s growth. This, in turn, is powered by the
growing middle class, young consumers and rising disposable incomes.

6. TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT, 2016
• The world economy, which continues to suffer from the fallout of the financial crisis that began
in late 2007 and the meltdown in September 2008, has not been able to revive the growth
conditions of the preceding decade.
• The world economy in 2016 is in a fragile state, with growth likely to dip below the 2.5 per cent
registered in 2014 and 2015
• The slowdown of trade has stalled growth in many developing countries, particularly commodity
exporters, and recent growth spurts have relied largely on capital inflows.
• In the United States, a sluggish recovery remains vulnerable to events in Europe given their
strongly intertwined financial systems.
• Therefore, a fundamental policy reorientation is needed, recognizing that healthy and inclusive
growth will require a stable expansion of consumption and investment in productive capacity
based on favourable income expectations of the working population and positive demand
expectations of entrepreneurs.
Source: UNCTAD Flagship report section (Website)

7. HISTORY OF UNCTAD
• In the early 1960s, growing concerns about the place of developing countries in
international trade led many of these countries to call for the convening of a full-
fledged conference specifically devoted to tackling these problems and identifying
appropriate international actions.
• The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was held
in Geneva in 1964. Given the magnitude of the problems at stake and the need to
address them, the conference was institutionalized to meet every four years, with
intergovernmental bodies meeting between sessions and a permanent secretariat
providing the necessary substantive and logistical support.
• Simultaneously, the developing countries established the Group of 77 to voice their
concerns. (Today, the G77 has 131 members.)

8. CONTINUE…
• Phase 1: The 1960s and 1970s
• Agreements launched by UNCTAD during this time include: the Generalized
System of Preferences (1968), whereby developed economies grant improved
market access to exports from developing countries.
• a number of International Commodities Agreements, which aimed at
stabilizing the prices of export products crucial for developing countries.
• the Convention on a Code of Conduct for Liner Conferences, which
strengthened the ability of developing countries to maintain national merchant
fleets.
• the adoption of a Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for
the Control of Restrictive Business Practices. This work later evolved into
what is today known as "Trade and Competition Policies".

9. CONTINUE…
• Furthermore, UNCTAD was a key contributor to the definition of the target of
0.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) to be given as official development aid
by developed countries to the poorest countries, as adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly in 1970.
• the identification of the Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as early as
1971, which drew attention to the particular needs of these poorest countries.
UNCTAD became the focal point within the UN system for tackling LDC-related
economic development issues.

10. CONTINUE..
• Phase 2: The 1980s
• In the 1980s, UNCTAD was faced with a changing economic and political
environment. There was a significant transformation in economic thinking.
Development strategies became more market-oriented, focusing on trade
liberalization and privatization of state enterprises.
• A number of developing countries were plunged into severe debt crises.
Despite structural adjustment programs by the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund, most developing countries affected were not able to recover
quickly. In many cases, they experienced negative growth and high rates of
inflation. For this reason, the 1980s become known as the "lost decade",
particularly in Latin America.
• Economic interdependence in the world increased greatly.

11. CONTINUE…
• In the light of these developments, UNCTAD multiplied efforts aimed at
strengthening the analytical content of its intergovernmental debate,
particularly regarding macroeconomic management and international financial
and monetary issues.
• broadening the scope of its activities to assist developing countries in their
efforts to integrate into the world trading system. In this context,
• the technical assistance provided by UNCTAD to developing countries
was particularly important in the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations,
which had begun under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
in 1986. UNCTAD played a key role in supporting the negotiations for the
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
• UNCTAD's work on trade efficiency (customs facilitation, multimodal
transport) made an important contribution to enabling developing
economies to reap greater gains from trade.

12. CONTINUE…
• UNCTAD assisted developing countries in the rescheduling of official
debt in the Paris Club negotiations.
• In 1989, the Agreement on the Global System of Trade Preferences among
Developing Countries (GSTP) came into force. It provided for the granting of
tariff as well as non-tariff preferences among its members. To date, the
Agreement has been ratified by 44 countries.
• addressing the concerns of the poorest nations by organizing the first UN
Conference on Least Developed Countries in 1981. Since then, two other
international conferences have been held at 10-year intervals.

13. CONTINUE…
• Phase 3: From the 1990s until today
• Key developments in the international context:
• The conclusion of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations under the
GATT resulted in the establishment of the World Trade Organization in
1995, which led to a strengthening of the legal framework governing
international trade.
• A spectacular increase in international financial flows led to increasing
financial instability and volatility.
• Against this background, UNCTAD's analysis gave early warning
concerning the risks and the destructive impact of financial crises on
development. Consequently, UNCTAD emphasized the need for a more
development-oriented "international financial architecture".
• Foreign direct investment flows became a major component of globalization.

14. CONTINUE…
• UNCTAD highlighted the need for a differentiated approach to the problems
of developing countries. Its tenth conference, held in Bangkok in February
2000, adopted a political declaration – "The Spirit of Bangkok" – as a
strategy to address the development agenda in a globalizing world.

15. OBJECTIVES OF UNCTAD
The objective of UNCTAD is to carry out the following key functions:
Main Objective
 “Maximize the trade, investment and development opportunities of developing
countries and assist them in their efforts to integrate into the world economy on an
equitable basis.“
Other
 It functions as a forum for intergovernmental deliberation
 To review and facilitate the co-ordination of activities of the other institutions within the
U.N. system in the field of international trade.
 It undertakes research, policy analysis and data collection for the debates of government
representatives and experts
 It provides technical assistance tailored to the specific requirements of developing
countries, with special attention to the needs of the least developed countries and of
economies in transition
 To be available as a centre for harmonious trade and related documents in the
development policies of governments.

16. MAIN AREAS OF WORK OF UNCTAD
• Globalization and Development
• International Trade and Commodities
• Investment and Enterprise
• Technology and Logistics

17. Organization structure of UNCTAD
The organization structure of UNCTAD consists of
1. Conference
2. Trade and Development Board
3. Commissions
4. Expert Meetings
5. Secretariat

18. THE CONFERENCE
• The highest decision-making body of UNCTAD is the quadrennial
conference, at which member States make assessments of current trade
and development issues, discuss policy options and formulate global
policy responses. The conference also sets the organization’s mandate
and work priorities.
• The conference is a subsidiary organ of the United Nations General
Assembly.
• The conferences serve an important political function: they allow
intergovernmental consensus building regarding the state of the world
economy and development policies, and they play a key role in
identifying the role of the United Nations and UNCTAD in addressing
economic development problems.

19. Trade and
Development Board
The Committee on
Commodities
The Committee on
Manufactures
The Committee on
Shipping
The Committee on
Invisible Items and
Financing related to
Trade
THE TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD

20. THE TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD
• In four years between the meetings of conferences, UNCTAD’s
work is guided by the Trade and Development Board. Board
membership is open to all State members of UNCTAD, and
accredited inert-governmental and non-governmental
organisations enjoy observer status.
• The board meets in Geneva once a year in regular session and
up to three times a year in executive sessions to deal with ad
hoc policy and institutional issues.

21. THE COMMISSIONS
• The Trade and Development Board currently has three Commissions that meet
once a year to address policy issues in specific areas and provide guidance for
the work of the secretariat. These Commissions are :
• The commission on Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities
• The commission on Investment, Technology and Related Financial Issues
• The commission on Enterprise, Business Facilitation and Development
• The UNCTAD secretariat also services the commission on Science and
Technology for Development(CSTD), which is a subsidiary body of the United
Nations Economic and Social Council

22. CONTINUE…
• These commissions allow Governments to exchange
views on policy issues in their respective ambits.
• As in all of UNCTAD’s inter-governmental bodies,
decisions of the Commissions are taken by the
consensus, and thus agreed conclusions and
recommendations reflect the collective political will of
UNCTAD’s membership

23. STRUCTURE OF THE SECRETARIAT
Secretary-General
Office of the S-G
Special Programme
For Least Developed,
Landlocked and Island
Developing Countries
Deputy S-G
Division on
Globalisation
& Development
Strategies
Division
on Investment,
Technology and
Enterprise
Development
Division
On Services
Infrastructure for
Development and
Trade Efficiency
Division
On International
Trade in Goods
and Services,
and Commodities
Division
of Management

24. EXPERT MEETINGS
• The work of the commission is supported by
discussions among specialized technical experts in
specific fields.
• Up to 10 such Expert Meetings are convened by the
Commissions every year. They allow the government
representatives attending the Commissions to take the
advantage of valuable technical input from academics,
practitioners and the private sector

25. UNCTAD I 1964 GENEVA
• To adopt a new international division of labour and make
the external sector conductive to the developing
countries.
• To improve invisible trade of developing countries through
development of shipping, tourism, etc.
• Each developed countries contributes 1% of their income
to the developing countries.
Meetings of UNCTAD

26. UNCTAD II 1968 NEW DELHI
• To reappraise the economic situation and its
implementing the recommendation of UNCTAD I.
• Problems and measures of economic integration and
trade and development among developing countries.
• Special measures for economic and social upliftment of
the last developed among the developing nations.

27. UNCTAD III 1972 SANTIAGO
• Changes in shipping freight (i.e. 1/3 of total deficit in the
balance of payment of L.D.C’s was due to high shipping
freights.
• Promotion to world trade
• New structure of world shipping in which the merchant marine
of developing countries play an increasing and substantial
role.

28. UNCTAD IV 1976 NAIROBI
• Helping the poor countries by the developed countries.
• Some kind of taxes may be disposed by the advanced nations
to raise funds.

29. UNCTAD V 1979 MANILA
• 150 member countries were participated in this conference.
• No concrete resolution were passed but having some future
consideration on monetary reforms.

30. UNCTAD VI 1983 BELGRADE
• Attainment of new international economic order.
• Monetary issues such as adequacy of fund resources,
conditionality etc were discussed.
• Developed countries insisted on Liberalizations of trade policies
by the developing nations

31. UNCTAD VII 1987 GENEVA
• The developed countries express their desire to provide debt
relief to the poor countries.

32. UNCTAD VIII 1992 COLOMBIA
• 170 member countries agreed on board features of revitalising
UNCTAD and to make it more effective in dealing with
development related issues.
• It has agreed to create Trade and Development Board (TDB).
• Establishment of five ad hoc (created for a particular purpose
only) group to support the committee & TDB.

33. UNCTAD IX 1996 MIDRAND
• UNCTAD IX met at Midrand in South Africa in 1996 in which it
discussed issues pertaining to WTO, sustainable development
and debt relief to developing nations.

34. UNCTAD X 2000 BANGKOK(THAILAND)
• The effective integration of all countries in the international
trading system, improving supply capabilities, overcoming the
debt problem, strengthening the commitment to social
development, ensuring women´s political, economic and social
participation, generating adequate financial flows for
development, undertaking institutional reforms.

35. UNCTAD XI 2004 SAU PAULO, BRAZIL
• The effective integration of all countries in the international
trading system, strengthening the commitment to social
development, ensuring women´s political, reducing financial
volatility, focusing on central problems of acute poverty and
growing inequality within and among nations.

36. UNCTAD XII 2008 ACCRA, GHANA
• Increasing the level of investment in technology and
infrastructure
• Equitable distribution of rents
• Harnessing development gains from windfall incomes
• Human resource development:
• Ensuring a stable macroeconomic framework
• Food safety and health standards

37. UNCTAD XII 2012 DOHA, QUATAR

38. UNCTAD XIV 2016 NAIROBI, KENYA

39. NIEO (NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC
ORDER)
• The NIEO was a set of proposals put forward during the 1970s by some
developing countries through the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development to promote their interests by improving their terms of trade,
increasing development assistance, developed-country tariff reductions, and
other means.
• At the Sixth Special Sessions of the United Nations General in 1975, a
declaration was made for the establishment of a NIEO.
• NIEO is based on “equity, sovereign equality, common interest and
cooperation among all States, irrespective of their social and economic
systems.
• NIEO aims at a development of the global economy as a whole, with the set
up of inter-related policies and performance targets of the international
community at large.

40. TENETS OF NIEO
• Developing countries must be entitled to regulate and control the
activities of multinational corporations operating within their territory.
• They must be free to nationalize or expropriate foreign property on
conditions favorable to them.
• They must be free to set up associations of primary commodities
producers similar to the OPEC; all other States must recognize this
right and refrain from taking economic, military, or political measures
calculated to restrict it.
• International trade should be based on the need to ensure stable,
equitable, and remunerative prices for raw materials, generalized non-
reciprocal and non-discriminatory tariff preferences, as well as transfer
of technology to developing countries; and should provide economic
and technical assistance without any strings attached.

41. OBJECTIVES OF NIEO
• NIEO aims at social justice among the trading countries of
the world.
• It suggests more equitable allocation of world’s resources
through increased flow of aid from the rich & poor in the
world at large.
• Its aim is to provide poor nations increased participation an
have their say in the decision making process in
international affairs.
• It intends to deal with the major problems of the South,
such as balance of payment disequilibrium, debt crisis,
exchange scarcity etc.

42. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER AGENCIES
• World Trade Organization
• International Trade Centre
• UN Regional Commissions and UNDP
• International Monetary Fund and World Bank
• Other intergovernmental bodies
• Relationships with civil society
• Non-governmental organizations

43. ADVANTAGES OF UNCTAD
• Training material is disseminated more efficiently.
• The programme provides universities and accounting institutions in
developing countries with access to material and training in a cost-effective
way.
• The programme allows students and professionals to learn on their own time,
in their own place, at their own pace.
• Study materials and lessons are accessible in PDF format for online study.
Participants can learn independently or with offline instructional support.
• The programme can reach remote locations in instances where the instructor
cannot travel. This way, course participants, policy makers and company
managers can be reached in developing countries.

44. CONCLUSION
• The main functions of UNCTAD are to promote international trade all over the world,
working as a forum for intergovernmental deliberation, to undertake research, policy
analysis and data collection for the debates of government representatives and experts.
• The main activities of UNCTAD are to facilitate trade and commodities, Investment and
enterprise development, Macroeconomic policies, debt & development financing,
Technology and Logistics, Special program for least developed countries, Africa,
landlocked developing countries & small island developing States.
• The UNCTAD Evaluation and Monitoring Unit coordinates the oversight activities
within the organization that serve to both ensure and enhance the quality and resonance
of its programmes and projects.

45. CONTINUE…
• The NIEO ( new international economic order) is a set of proposals which was presented
in front of UN by the developed countries and NIEO aims at a development of the global
economy as a whole, with the set up of inter-related policies and performance targets of
the international community at large.
• UNCTAD and other agencies like WTO, ITC, UNDP, IMF, World Bank, etc. have
collaborated on the projects related to technical assistance, capacity building, research
projects, economic development, etc.

46. THANK YOU.