Strengthening technical cooperation in commodities

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

UNCTAD is concerned to strengthen cooperation in the following areas at the national and international levels: reducing distortions affecting supply and demand; improving transparency; removing trade barriers affecting primary commodities; optimizing development through increased productivity as well as diversification of production and exports; and ensuring environmentally sound management of natural resources with a view to attaining sustainable development.

Initiatives are already underway with respect to: diversification and processing to encourage the participation of private investors, both domestic and foreign, in processing activities through direct involvement in the development and implementation of projects; commercialization, notably through appropriate training and human resource development of marketing executives; mineral and resource-based development strategies, to link the issue of management of mineral resources to macroeconomic management of mineral resource rents and sustainability of development patterns, including from an environmental perspective; sustainable development, by expanding the utilization and trade of environmentally preferable products and by analysing the internalization of environmental costs and resource values; commodity information services; and food commodities trading and policies.