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STORY: GENEVA / BAN AID FOR TRADE
TRT: 2.49
SOURCE: CH UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 19 JULY 2011, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Cutaway, arrival of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with head of WTO Pascal Lamy
2. Cutaway, Ban at WTO meeting
3. Various shots, Ban sitting next to Lamy
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“All is not well. As we all know, this is a time of economic uncertainty. Budgets are tight. But difficult fiscal conditions are no excuse for letting up on our efforts; they underscore the need for collective action. The annual rate of increase for Aid for Trade has slowed sharply. At the very least, I urge the donor community not to fall short of the present level of Aid for Trade.”
5. Cutaway, conference room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“In the Millennium Declaration, Member States pledged to promote a rules-based, open, transparent, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system. The United Nations fully supports the efforts of the WTO to conclude the Doha Round as well as your initiatives to improve Aid for Trade. These efforts have mobilized resources, improved monitoring and evaluation, supported regional integration and advanced the aid effectiveness agenda.”
7. Cutaway, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“At this time I'm also very much concerned about the impact in the horn of Africa. I have been raising this issue, awareness of the issue that 11 million people are being impacted at this time. In Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Somalia, they're not the alone. We have to support at least 35 million people, refugees, and these numbers have been added and increased, because of the situations that happened in North Africa, and we have to support at least more than 100 million people, daily all these people. So there is a huge challenge for the UN.”
9. Wide shot, conference
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today (19 July) appealed to donors to maintain their support for “Aid for Trade” efforts to help developing countries, especially the poorest, accelerate development and benefit from global economic growth.
Aid for Trade is an initiative launched by the World Trade Organization (WTO) six years ago to help developing countries, particularly the least developed, develop the necessary trade-related skills and infrastructure to carry out and benefit from WTO agreements and to expand their trade.
Speaking at the Third Global Review of Aid for Trade in Geneva, Ban said “all is not well” adding that “this is a time of economic uncertainty.”
He said that Aid for Trade is a crucial building block of the global partnership for development, and applauded the international community’s efforts to mobilize resources under this category. Today Aid for Trade accounts for as much as one-third of official development assistance (ODA).
Noting that the annual rate of increase for Aid for Trade has slowed sharply, he urged the donor community not to fall short of the present level of Aid for Trade.
The Secretary-General also stressed the need to pay attention to the unique needs of the least developed countries (LDCs) and make sure they are not left behind. Also, he emphasized the need to fully utilize the potential for Aid for Trade to advance food and nutrition security.
Ban also noted that in an age of integration and interconnection, initiatives such as Aid for Trade have to be looked at along with other interlinked issues such as climate change, food crisis, global health and gender empowerment, as well as other development objectives, including the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Turning to the dire humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa, Ban said “I have been raising this issue, awareness of the issue that 11 million people are being impacted at this time.”
The two-day Global Review of Aid for Trade, which opened on Monday, is aimed at assessing what has been achieved since the initiative was launched in Hong Kong in 2005. The forum brings together senior officials from the WTO, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), as well as dozens of international trade organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private corporations.
