28 July 2016 — Ambassador Cecilia B. Rebong, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations in Geneva, directly contributed to a successful outcome of the Fourteenth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIV), held in Nairobi, Kenya from July 17 to 22 July by facilitating negotiations under one of the subthemes of the meeting.

Every four years, the UNCTAD holds what is called the quadrennial conference to determine the mandate of the organization and what areas it would focus on for the next four years. In order to give structure to the outcome document, it is divided into a theme and four subthemes.

The theme for this year’s conference was “From decision to action: Moving towards an inclusive and equitable global economic environment for trade and development.” Subtheme 1 was entitled “Challenges and opportunities in multilateralism for trade and development.” Subtheme 2 was “Promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth through trade, investment, finance and technology to achieve prosperity for all.” Subtheme 3 was “Advancing economic structural transformation and cooperation to build economic resilience and address trade and development challenges and opportunities, at all levels, within the UNCTAD mandate.”

Ambassador Rebong facilitated discussions under Subtheme 4 on “Contributing to the effective implementation of and follow-up to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and relevant outcomes from global conferences and summits.” She was able to get delegations to agree on difficult issues under this Subtheme such as the revitalization of the UNCTAD’s intergovernmental machinery (IGM), which has long been bogged down by disagreements between the developed and developing country members of the United Nations. The IGM helps determine the work of the organization by having member States of the UN debate and reach consensus. The Nairobi Maafikiano or the Nairobi Consensus, which was the outcome of this year’s UNCTAD agreed that the IGM would be revitalized to better support member States implement the comprehensive set of goals and targets stipulated under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Ambassador Rebong said “It was important for the Philippines to lead discussions on one of the subthemes given that we are a recognized and trusted player in the field of development. The Philippines has long been a champion of the cause of development having been the previous chair of the Group of 77 and China in Geneva in 2015, which is a group of 134 countries from what is known as the developing South with the goal of promoting the cause development by negotiating on these issues as a bloc.”

She added that “Given the Philippine leadership displayed during its chairmanship of the G77 in 2015, it was only natural to continue to lead discussions under one of the subthemes and secure a positive agreement for UNCTAD XIV so that we could finish what we started in 2014 when we started as the Vice-Chair of the Group of 77 and China in Geneva and the eventual chair of it in 2015.” END.