Deborah James, Lidy Nacpil, Mamadou N’ Diaye and Kinda Mohamadieh during a discussion at Unctad conference at QNCC yesterday. Abdul Basit

DOHA: A day before the conclusion of negotiations at Unctad XIII, the Civil Society Forum said the real issue for the developed country governments is their fundamental difference with the perspectives that Unctad has been articulating about the multiple global crises devastating the lives and well being of ordinary people of all countries.

The climate crisis, especially, threatens to change life on earth and wipe out millions if the world, fails to decisively act within the window of time that is now rapidly closing. The analyses and strategic directions that Unctad reports have been outlining are simply unacceptable for these developed country governments, they felt.

“The assault on Unctad is an assault on multilateralism, a system that upholds parity among nations regardless of size and economic weight”, the Civil Society organizations said in a statement. The   members of the Civil Society Forum said they wish to see a stronger and even more relevant Unctad to emerge from the negotiations. They called for an Unctad that is “able to continue to contribute alternative analysis and thinking as well as strategic direction to address the global crisis.”

Lidy Nacpil, Regional Coordinator in the Philippines and representative of Jubilee South Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, said: “Governments [of developed countries] together with the international institutions they dominate and favour, i.e. the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, choose to deny that the crises are of a systemic nature triggered by the neoliberal policies that they support.”

She added: “They prefer to silence institutions that have been ahead of the curve and sing a different tune. They raise more than a trillion dollars’ worth of funds for unrepresentative organisations that produce recommendations putting millions of women and men at risk, while Unctad’s funding and work is constrained on the pretext of efficiency.”

Deborah James, Director of International Programmes at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC, said: “Unctad is the only international forum where developing countries have a voice. We should be strengthening Unctad in comparison to other institutions that are dominated by the developed countries, such as the IMF, not weakening it. This is especially important as they have been wrong about the financial system and Unctad has been right in predicting the current crisis.”

The Peninsula