The event is the UN’s first major conference on trade and development amid the coronavirus pandemic and will help shape policy responses for a better recovery from COVID-19.
Bridgetown, Barbados. © napa74
Registration is now open for UNCTAD’s 15th quadrennial conference (UNCTAD15) scheduled to take place online from 3 to 7 October, hosted by Barbados, under the theme “From inequality and vulnerability to prosperity for all”.
The conference is UNCTAD’s highest decision-making body. It sets the organization’s work priorities for the next four years and formulates global policy recommendations.
“UNCTAD15 is a critical moment for the international community to assess the socioeconomic challenges facing developing countries and chart a sustainable path forward in the decade we have left to reach the Sustainable Development Goals,” UNCTAD Acting Secretary-General Isabelle Durant said.
“We look forward to bringing together developed and developing countries to jointly take bold actions to reduce inequality and vulnerability and offer hope and direction to a world still grappling with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ms. Durant added.
Virtual platform
The conference will take place on a virtual platform where attendees can participate in discussions, exchange ideas in breakout sessions, watch multimedia content, explore exhibitions, download documents, connect and network with each other.
Several sessions on trade, investment, finance, technology, environment and other development-related topics will be held during the conference.
In the lead-up to the gathering, UNCTAD will launch campaigns to spotlight pressing issues to be tackled during the conference and the actions needed to ensure global efforts to recover from the pandemic equally benefit everyone everywhere.
How to register
Those wishing to participate in the conference should register online.
A separate online registration is required for each of the pre-events, other side events, and the Global Commodities, Youth, Civil Society, Gender and Creative Industries forums that will take place in September ahead of the conference.
These events will feed into deliberations during the conference. Interested participants can register on the web page of each event.