21 April 2008
Accra — The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon among other international leaders including Heads of State have arrived in Ghana's capital Accra to grace the12th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which is underway at the Accra International Conference Centre.
Some 4,000 representatives of UNCTAD's 193 member states, and other international bodies, non-governmental organizations, business and academia are attending the conference.
The conference is being held under the theme, "Addressing the opportunities and challenges of globalization for development". Four sub-themes would be deliberated on before it ends.
They are: Enhancing coherence at all levels for sustainable economic development and poverty reduction in global policy-making, including the contribution of regional approaches; Key trade and development issues and the new realities in the geography of the world economy; Enhancing an enabling environment at all levels to strengthen productive capacity, trade and investment: mobilizing resources and harnessing knowledge for development; and Strengthening UNCTAD: enhancing its development role, impact, and institutional effectiveness.
In a related development, participants at the UNCTAD XII Civil Society Forum have called for enactment of policies that would enable markets to work for the poor.
There must also be regulatory mechanisms to deal with the activities of trans-national corporations (TNCs).
They said although the attainment of independence by African countries shifted the political dynamics, it did not change the unbalanced trade and investment relations with Europe and the rest of the world.
Africa, they said, has remained a major producer and supplier of primary commodities under terms which are detrimental to the development of the national economies.
The participants were speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the challenges and opportunities of globalization for development in Accra.
Mr. Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, General Secretary of the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union, said the unbridled trade liberalization has destroyed livelihoods and rendered farmers poorer.
He said the conditionalities imposed on developing countries through the Bretton Woods institutions had led to removal of all forms of support to farmers like subsidized agricultural inputs.
Dr Yao Graham, Coordinator of Third World Network, said developing countries continue to be marginalized in their efforts at sustainable development because of globalization.
He said the current financial turmoil and an economic slowdown in industrialized countries are the defining moments to examine whether developing countries can become less vulnerable to downturns in North America and Western Europe.
Ms Anna Antwi, Food Rights Advisor, Action Aid Ghana, said by following the dictates of the world institutions, governments in developing countries were unable to develop policies to protect local producers and employment to reduce poverty.
She said the free trade deals that the EU is seeking with Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries would enforce lowering of tariffs and undermine locally produced foods.
The civil society forum would finalise the civil society statement to be delivered at the opening plenary of the main conference.
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Another tea party for insincere policy makers and academics to lament, discuss and have refreshments on the Ghanaian taxpayer and UN tab. The Ghanaian and other African governments are for the most part, unwise and without any sensibilities on such issues. This is the age of the proactive African who takes his/her destiny and submits it to the tenets of wisdom for guidance. Not the age of African cliques that benefit from bad policy advice from Europe and North America, and their economic institutions, and then after that, lament for decades about bad policy advice.
Of course, in Ghana, many of the benefits of bribery and policy swindling is accruing to a certain group known as the Asante. History has proven the house of Manhyia (the Asante royal household) to be a corrupt lot who are bent on satisfying their unsatiable lust for wealth and power among other things. Thank God that in the aftermath of their pursuits, divine justice will give way to their humiliation and FULL international exposure as a fraudulent and treacherously corrupt bunch of people.