VZCZCXRO2765
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHGV #0997/01 3130722
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 090722Z NOV 09
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0087
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHRN/USMISSION UN ROME

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 GENEVA 000997 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT OF AGRICULTURE FOR FAS, ONA, OCBD, OGA 
FAO ROME FOR HEINEN 
PASS USTR FOR LISER AND BRYAN 
 
TAGS: ECON EAID ETRD EAGR UNCTAD
SUBJECT: UNCTAD 47th Executive Session of the Trade and Development 
Board 
 
GENEVA 00000997  001.2 OF 005 
 
 
¶1. SUMMARY. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 
(UNCTAD) Trade and Development Board (TDB) held its 47th Executive 
Session on June 30, 2009. The focus of the conference was food 
insecurity in Africa as an obstacle to development. The TDB approved 
several reports - the Report of the Trade and Development Commission 
on its First Session, the Report of the Investment, Enterprise and 
Development Commission on its first session, and the Topics for 
single-year expert meetings for 2010. The TDB noted that UNCTAD 
continues to provide technical assistance to African nations seeking 
to alleviate issues of food insecurity, and in particular has 
mobilized the Integrated Framework for Trade Related Technical 
Assistance in favor of African nations. The United States gave a 
statement highlighting the USG role in sponsoring African 
agricultural development and extension services (between 2008 and 
2009, the U.S. provided 5.5 billion dollars toward food security 
measures globally), and suggesting reforms to improve UNCTAD's 
efficiency.  END SUMMARY 
 
OPENING REMARKS 
--------------- 
 
¶2. UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi opened the 47th 
TDB meeting with a reminder that the food crisis of 2008 was only 
the most recent articulation of chronic food insecurity in African 
nations: the World Food Programme estimates that high food prices in 
2009 pushed an additional 105 million people into hunger, globally. 
In Africa, 21 countries and 300 million Africans suffer from chronic 
hunger - stemming largely from underdevelopment of the continent's 
agricultural sector. 
 
¶3. Average per-capita food production has been in decline for thirty 
years, which indicates that fighting food insecurity will require 
increasing production yields, as opposed to expanding acreage. 
Supachai noted that biotech solutions such as genetically modified 
organisms will provide only part of the solution, and productivity 
could instead expand with access to modern farm equipment and 
fertilizers, as well as the use of crop rotation in certain 
regions. 
 
¶4.  Supachai stressed that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and 
Official Development Assistance (ODA) Structural Adjustment Programs 
and other market reforms have destabilized the role of States in 
agriculture, and private investment has favored export cash crops 
over production for local consumption. FDI has halved between 1996 
and 2006, and currently the agricultural sector accounts for less 
than two percent of world FDI inward stock. UNCTAD predicts that FDI 
will decline by 25 percent in developing countries in 2009. Supachai 
recommended that developing nations prioritize attracting FDI as 
part of their investment strategies. 
 
¶5.  In Africa, the greater attention paid to humanitarian and social 
aid has overshadowed ODA for agriculture. ODA for agriculture has 
declined from 18 percent of total ODA in 1979 to three percent in 
¶2006. Aid needs to be rebalanced toward production and 
infrastructure. 
 
¶6.  UNCTAD has been proactive in providing African nations with 
technical assistance on a number of fronts, including providing 
support to nations on commodities issues, organizing a series of 
high-level forums on development issues surrounding cocoa, cotton, 
and coffee, working with developing nations on negotiations under 
the WTO Doha Development Agenda (DDA), collaborating with 
international organizations regarding issues of subsidies and export 
restrictions, and intensifying attention to issues of gender and 
trade. 
 
FOOD SECURITY IN AFRICA: LEARNING LESSONS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  UNCTAD released the above titled report, which details the 
persistence of food insecurity in African nations, particularly in 
light of the financial crisis. 
 
¶8.  According to the report, 28 African nations reacted to the 
crisis by enacting protectionist measures to limit or ban food 
exports, claiming underlying risks of relying upon the principle of 
comparative advantage.  Protectionist policies and high subsidies in 
developed countries have also deprived Africa of export markets, the 
report claimed, while simultaneously demanding that Africa accept 
cheap imports on their domestic markets. 
 
¶9.  UNCTAD recommends that managing food security in Africa will 
require action on three fronts: improving agricultural productivity 
through, inter alia, credit provision, research and development, 
improving rural livelihoods through supporting infrastructure, 
reducing farmer vulnerability to market fluctuation, and correcting 
market imbalances through reducing protection and subsidies. 
 
 
GENEVA 00000997  002.2 OF 005 
 
 
ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY UNCTAD IN FAVOUR OF AFRICA 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶10.  UNCTAD's annual report, presented to the Trade and Development 
Board, includes examples of technical assistance, policy analysis, 
research, and information dissemination with reference to 
development in Africa. UNCTAD has released two significant reports 
in the past year. The first, Economic Development in Africa, argues 
that African nations need to adopt sector-specific policies in 
agricultural pursuits to manage structural, institutional, and 
socio-economic constraints. The second, entitled the Least Developed 
Countries Report 2008: Growth, Poverty and the Terms of Development 
Partnership, questions the sustainability of recent growth in Least 
Developed Countries (LDCs). The report encourages enhanced country 
ownership of national development strategies. UNCTAD has also 
produced and delivered two studies promoting trade policy that is 
sensitive to key gender issues in Africa. 
 
¶11.  UNCTAD has also engaged African nations using the Enhanced 
Integrated Framework (EIF) for Least Development Countries, a 
multi-agency, multi-donor coordination effort to deliver 
trade-related technical assistance and institutional capacity 
building. The EIF currently provides assistance to 28 African 
nations. 
 
¶12.  UNCTAD support for African nations in 2008 has included 
monitoring the DDA negotiations, offering tailor-made comprehensive 
assistance to nations acceding to the WTO, as well as to those in 
the post-accession phase, assisting nations to capitalize upon 
North-South preferential trade agreements, including the Generalized 
System of Preferences (GSP), African Growth and Opportunity Act 
(AGOA), and the ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement. Additionally, UNCTAD 
provided advice and analysis on South-South trading arrangements. 
 
¶13.  UNCTAD supported the African Biofuels and Renewable Energy Fund 
(ABREF), to which it provided technical assistance. UNCTAD also 
worked with the WTO to deliver technical and training assistance in 
Africa. 
 
Report on the Right to Food 
---------------------------- 
 
¶14.  Mr. Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to 
Food, promoted the use of a human-rights approach to considering 
issues of food security. Mr. De Schutter reminded the TDB that 
national frameworks for food security need to target the most 
vulnerable first. He noted that trade and investment policies need 
to be subordinated to the larger objective of realizing the right to 
food.  According to De Schutter, the right to food should guide 
governments in choosing between different modes of agricultural 
production. 
 
¶15.  In an Open Letter to Heads of State and Governments, Mr. De 
Schutter recommended that states allocate public spending to public 
goods in addition to, if not instead of, direct inputs such as seeds 
and fertilizers. He cited storage facilities, access to 
communication technologies, access to credit and insurance against 
weather-related risks, extension services, agricultural research, 
and the organization of farming cooperatives as examples of public 
goods. He also promoted the development of farms that are 
labor-intensive rather than heavily mechanized, as the former model 
promotes job creation in addition to increases in agricultural 
yields. 
 
¶16.  Mr. De Schutter commented on the use of transnational 
large-scale land investments, noting that while they provide 
potential for development through infrastructure and employment, as 
well as improving access to technologies and credit, they also can 
destroy indigenous and unprotected access to land. He recommended a 
set of basic principles to ensure that transnational large-scale 
land investments are utilized in a manner that prioritizes the right 
to food in food-insecure nations. 
 
SINGLE-YEAR EXPERT MEETINGS IN 2010 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶17.  The TDB approved the following topics for expert meetings in 
2010: 
 
- Successful trade and development strategies for mitigating the 
impact of the global economic and financial crisis. 
- The contribution of tourism to trade and development 
- The role of States, efficiency in public investment for 
development - sharing best practices. 
- Investment in the agricultural sector with a view to building 
productive capacities. 
- Green and renewable technologies as energy solutions for rural 
development. 
 
GENEVA 00000997  003.2 OF 005 
 
 
- The contribution and effective use of external resources for 
development, in particular for productive capacity-building. 
 
¶18.  COMMENT:  The annual executive session of the TDB provided a 
useful opportunity for delegations to focus on Africa and for 
African delegates to demand greater efficiency and attention from 
UNCTAD.  Several African delegates complained that despite the Accra 
Accord's emphasis on assisting less developed countries and Africa, 
this mandate is not carried into many real programs and research 
products benefiting LDCs and Africa. END COMMENT. 
 
US STATEMENT 
------------ 
 
¶19.  Ann Low, US Representative to UNCTAD, delivered the following 
statement for the United States, which covers both the US role in 
Africa promoting food security and development, and recommendations 
to improve UNCTAD's effectiveness.  The statement was very well 
received. The President of the TDB, Ambassador Djani of Indonesia, 
supported further discussion of US proposals for improved synergies 
among UNCTAD's three pillars of work. 
 
(BEGIN STATEMENT) 
 
¶20. The United States welcomes this opportunity to focus on UNCTAD's 
work in Africa and Food Security in Africa. The African continent 
has made enormous strides forward in the past few years in terms of 
economic growth and stability. However, much remains to be done. We 
appreciate UNCTAD's commitment to making Africa a priority in all of 
its work. 
 
Since 2001, the United States has dramatically increased its 
commitment to development in Africa - and has transformed the way 
this development is carried out. Together, Africa's leaders and the 
United States are working to pioneer a new era in development on the 
African continent.  The U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act 
(AGOA) has allowed 40 African nations to benefit from preferential 
access to American markets.  In 2008, net U.S. official development 
assistance worldwide amounted to $26 billion, a real increase of 
16.8 percent from 2007.   This included a 38 percent real increase 
in ODA to sub-Saharan Africa, which received $6.5 billion.  The 
Millennium Challenge Corporation has Compacts with 18 countries; of 
those, eleven are in Africa and total approximately $4.5 billion in 
multi-year financing.  These innovative grants are being provided in 
direct response to project proposals designed by Africans, and 
capture the US commitment to poverty reduction through economic 
growth and empowerment. 
 
While U.S. work with Africa covers a broad range of cooperative 
activities, here I will comment on UNCTAD's work in Africa and focus 
on U.S. actions to improve food security, including in Africa. 
 
UNCTAD's Work in Africa 
----------------------- 
 
The United States welcomes the report "Activities undertaken by 
UNCTAD in favor of Africa (TD/B/EX (470/2)."  We are impressed with 
the breadth and content of UNCTAD's myriad projects in Africa. 
However, we believe the impact of these projects, including their 
usefulness in terms of lessons learned or expansion of effective 
projects, can be improved through a more strategic approach to 
technical assistance and better presentation of the results. 
 
We believe UNCTAD has a unique role in the development community 
through its mandate to be the focal point for the UN system on trade 
and development and through the possibility of synergies among its 
three pillars of  work: research and analysis; consensus building; 
and technical assistance.  In order to more effectively perform its 
mandate and help partners better understand the scope of UNCTAD's 
projects, we encourage UNCTAD in its next annual report on 
activities in Africa to list the dollar value of the projects it has 
undertaken and, if appropriate, to explain how each project, based 
on its utility, might be scaled up or spun off to another 
organization. 
 
UNCTAD should consider organizing its projects into those that are 
well established and well known UNCTAD products, such as ASYCUDA, 
DMFAS, EMPRETEC and Investment Policy Reviews, and those that are 
new projects growing out of UNCTAD's research and consensus 
building.  The latter group could then be monitored by UNCTAD and 
member states to determine whether they merit either being scaled up 
and added to UNCTAD's menu of proven technical assistance products, 
spun off to a partner development organization or NGO, or 
discontinued. 
 
In this way the synergies between UNCTAD's research and analysis, 
consensus building and technical assistance could be strengthened. 
Research should be the trigger that initiates a project.  Then 
 
GENEVA 00000997  004.2 OF 005 
 
 
analysis of the project should lead to finite findings and either 
discontinuation of the project, or validation of its impact and a 
strategy for expansion either through UNCTAD or a partner.  The 
consensus building function could be used not only to publicize 
research findings and share experiences, but also to attract 
additional funding for successful projects, to refine and improve 
ongoing projects, and as a source for new research ideas. 
 
The report shows that UNCTAD is doing a great deal in many 
countries. We encourage UNCTAD's different divisions to work 
collaboratively on the elaboration of UNCTAD's Communications 
strategy, so that this information becomes more accessible and 
user-friendly through creation of country profiles on the UNCTAD 
website.  Given the availability of consolidated information on 
UNCTAD's work in Africa, we encourage UNCTAD to start designing 
countries profiles using African countries and to present a 
prototype country profile to the next TDB meeting as part of 
UNCTAD's new communications strategy. 
 
We welcome the report's reference to the Enhanced Integrated 
Framework (EIF) for trade-related assistance to LDCs.  When UNCTAD 
receives requests for assistance from member states, we encourage 
UNCTAD to continue working with its development partners to have its 
proven trade and development products incorporated into such 
comprehensive development and trade initiatives as the Enhanced 
Integrated Framework, UN Development Assistance Frameworks, and the 
One UN effort. 
 
Regarding specific work described in this report, we encourage 
UNCTAD's continued excellent work on proven products such as 
ASYCUDA, DMFAS, Empretec and Investment Policy Reviews.  We 
especially welcome UNCTAD's focus on Empretec Africa as we believe 
entrepreneurship can be a driver of economic recovery and a major 
contributor to helping developing countries leap frog forward in 
their development goals.  Regarding newer projects, we applaud 
UNCTAD's work on organic farming, which embodies synergies among 
UNCTAD's three pillars of work, is done in cooperation with multiple 
organizations, including regional groups, and can help to address a 
critical issue -- food security. 
 
Improving Food Security 
----------------------- 
 
The United States is working to help countries most affected by 
hunger and the impact of the global economic crisis.  The U.S. 
Government is providing over $5.5 billion to fight global hunger in 
2008 and 2009.   Separately, the U.S. Millennium Challenge 
Corporation has committed over $1.3 billion since 2005 for long-term 
investment in agriculture. Speaking in London in April at the G-20 
Summit, President Obama announced his intention to work with 
Congress to double agricultural development assistance to over $1 
billion, to give "people the tools they need to lift themselves out 
of poverty."  These funds are designed to work with partner 
countries to increase productivity and rural incomes by modernizing 
developing country agriculture. 
 
We agree with UNCTAD's finding that "improving food security of 
African countries requires that they and their development partners 
put agriculture firmly back on the agenda," and are working hard to 
see that happens.  The United States strongly supports the 
objectives of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development 
Plan (CAADP), which is a continental framework endorsed by all heads 
of state and government across Africa as their common vision and 
agenda to reform and revitalize African agriculture. 
 
In June, Secretary Clinton identified seven principles that support 
sustainable systems of agriculture in rural areas at the 2009 World 
Food Prize ceremony: increasing agricultural productivity by 
expanding access to quality seeds, fertilizers, irrigation tools and 
rural credit; stimulating the private sector by improving the 
storage and processing of foods and improving rural roads and 
transportation; maintaining  natural resources so that land can be 
farmed by future generations; expanding knowledge and training to 
cultivate the next generation of plant scientists; linking small 
producers to markets; supporting policy reform and good governance; 
and supporting women, who make up 70 percent of the world's farmers. 
 These seven principles will guide upcoming work and will help set 
benchmarks. 
 
The U.S. Government has a long tradition of providing longer term 
agricultural development assistance.  Increasingly, such assistance 
focuses not only on sustainable agricultural production, but on 
post-production storage, land management, marketing, and food.  We 
believe that, in order to make progress toward meeting the 
Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people who 
suffer from extreme hunger by 2015, a major increase in investment 
in agricultural development is essential. 
 
 
GENEVA 00000997  005.2 OF 005 
 
 
We strongly support the UN Secretary General's High Level Task Force 
on Food Security (HLTF), which was established in the spring of 2008 
in response to the global food price crisis.  The HLTF, under the 
leadership of Assistant Secretary General David Nabarro, produced a 
Comprehensive Framework of Action (CFA) last year, and has made 
considerable progress in working with food-insecure countries to 
develop country-led strategies to improve food security.  We are 
encouraged by the HLTF's contribution to improving coordination 
among the UN and other multilateral institutions involved in food 
security. 
 
We appreciate UNCTAD Secretary General Supachai's participation in 
the High Level Task Force and UNCTAD's continued research on the 
food crisis, and look forward to a productive discussion today. 
Thank you. 
 
(END STATEMENT) 
 
GRIFFITHS#