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Foreword Supachai Panitchpakdi
- Indiana University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Foreword This study examines the role of the United Nations in global resource management, whose influence and activities in this area include data collection, policy analysis, advisory services, and operational activities. Most of all, however, the United Nations— through the activities of its programs and agencies—is able to exercise the power of an idea: that balanced economic development can be achieved with the prudent and sustainable use of natural resources. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has been one of the principal advocates within the UN system of balanced and sustainable economic development since its establishment in 1964. Indeed, the original intellectual hypothesis underpinning its creation, elaborated by the economists Raúl Prebisch and Hans Singer, focused on a structural imbalance in global economic relations. The organization's earliest activities focused on how to remedy the longterm decline in the terms of trade between mainly primary commodity-exporting developing countries and manufactures-exporting developed countries. In the past, falling and highly volatile prices for key commodities made countries' dependence on commodities particularly problematic, and even today, 86 out of 144 developing countries depend on commodities for more than half their export earnings. For many developing countries that have managed to diversify their economies, this situation has improved—partly helped by policy prescriptions UNCTAD has developed, such as an emphasis on preferential market access and nonreciprocity in trade relations and attempts to stabilize world commodity markets. Additionally, the recent boom in commodity prices created by new demand in emerging economies has opened up new opportunities for commodity-rich countries. Since the 1960s, the bipolar characterization of economic relations has become more complex and new challenges have emerged. One such challenge is to ensure that policies and institutions are in place that allow new opportunities to be seized for the benefit of all countries while at the same time managing the consumption of global resources. To address this challenge, UNCTAD has consistently drawn attention to the role of sound investment policies and laws in the area of primary commodity production to secure long-term national and global benefits and the better management of natu- xviii Foreword ral resource endowments. In the area of foreign direct investment by multinational companies, host countries (receiving the investment) could do more to ensure that the benefits are better spread over the long term. More transparency and accountability of international revenue payments within the sector are also needed to distribute revenues more equitably among the population so that everyone shares the benefits of their country's resources. This timely study makes a seminal contribution to understanding the management of natural resources in the context of changing economic, environmental, and social realities. The author, Professor Nico Schrijver, is a distinguished independent expert on the right to development who has contributed to the United Nations' efforts on development through his participation as a member of the High-level Task Force on the Right to Development and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In his work, he has drawn on UNCTAD's research on policies and strategies for economic development. Professor Schrijver's work shows how research undertaken in the past by the United Nations is contributing to the search for solutions to today's main challenge: safeguarding the global commons for tomorrow while providing a decent quality of life for all. Supachai Panitchpakdi Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development ...