Blood and Milk

Let’s talk about UNCTAD

UNCTAD is the UN Conference on Trade and Development. Its 13^th meeting starts on Saturday in Qatar, and I am here in Doha to report on it. I’ll be putting personal reflections here on this blog, and more serious reporting at UN Dispatch.

If you, like most of my friends, think that UNCTAD sounds incredibly boring, I’ll tell you the secret about this conference. It’s actually very controversial. UNCTAD tends to give economic advice that is radically different from the World Bank and the IMF. Economists are divided: Dani Rodrik came out in support of UNCTAD, arguing that it is an important voice. Daniel Altman takes the opposite view, dinging UNCTAD for “sloppiness in basic economics and dubious personnel policy”.

UNCTAD xiii is especially controversial because right now G7 countries are trying to change the UNCTAD mandate. Either because UNCTAD had overstepped its competitive advantage and is giving bad advice to poor countries, or because the donor country alliance want to shut down the only heterorthodox voice in global economics.

So there you go. A sexy rebel lurking right in the UN system. Is UNCTAD misguided or innovative? Or both? This week, I’ll do my best to find out.

After that great ending, I had to stop writing, but I actually have more to say. You can find the UNCTAD conference programme here. If you see an event you’d particularly like me to cover, comment and I’ll do my best to attend and report. Also take a look at the Civil Society Forum and the World Investment Forum. It’s all right here.

My trip here, by the way, was paid for by the PR agency handling UNCTAD. All they asked, though, was that I write about the conference. They don’t have any input over what I say.

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