NEW YORK, United States of America, November 18, 2015/APO (African Press Organization)/ —
At the monthly consultations between the President of the Trade and Development Board, Ambassador Alberto Pedro D’Alotto, and UNCTAD member States on 17 November 2015, Kenya offered to host the fourteenth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIV), including the World Investment Forum and the civil society events, in Nairobi in July 2016. The generous offer was unanimously endorsed by the member States.
“I am pleased to learn of today’s Trade and Development Board ad referendum endorsement of the gracious offer from the Government of Kenya to host the UNCTAD XIV Conference in Nairobi in July 2016” declared Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD. “I look forward to welcoming all members and all stakeholders to a productive and decisive Ministerial in Nairobi next July.”
Stephen Ndungu Karau, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said the conference will be “an opportunity to move beyond business as usual and forge a strong global partnership to accelerate the implementation of the global development agenda”.
UNCTAD XIV was originally set to be held in Lima, Peru in March 2016, but in early September, the Government of Peru informed UNCTAD that it could no longer host the conference due to the latest negative forecasts for the El Niño weather event.
Following this announcement, other members of the group of Latin American countries (GRULAC) expressed an interest in hosting the quadrennial conference, but none could formalize an offer. The host of UNCTAD conferences usually alternates between Africa, Asia and the Pacific region, and the Latin America and Caribbean region. Without an alternative proposal from GRULAC, the membership agreed to allow countries in other regions to make an offer.
Kenya previously hosted UNCTAD IV held in May 1976. The last two conferences were held in Ghana for Africa in 2008 and in Qatar for Asia and the Pacific region in 2012.
