By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – Seven years after the Fourth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries charted out the international community’s vision and strategy for sustainable development of the world’s poorest countries, a new institution called the Technology Bank is set to start operations in 2018.
The Conference, held in Istanbul, Turkey, in May 2011, adopted the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011-2020, along with the Istanbul Declaration. The implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) requires contributions from donor and developing countries, parliaments, the private sector, civil society, the UN system and international and regional financial institutions.
The critical importance of an entity such as the Technology Bank was confirmed in the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development and in Goal 17.8 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In December 2016, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted resolution 71/251 on Establishment of the Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDs).
Hosted by the Government of Turkey, the Bank will be located in Gebze – 30 miles southeast of Istanbul – where it is currently under construction. This new entity will collaborate with other UN institutions on promoting digital access to research and technical knowledge.
“The Technology Bank has tremendous potential to tackle one of the great new divides of our times – access to science, technology and capacity to innovate,” said Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu, Under-Secretary-General, High Representative of the Secretary-General for the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDs, and the UN Secretary-General’s representative on the Council of the Technology Bank for LDCs.
The Council members met in New York on November 21, 2017 to discuss and adopt the programme of work and budget for activities in 2018. “The full operationalization of the Technology Bank is the first Sustainable Development Goal target (17.8) to be achieved,” said ‘Utoikaman. “The Technology Bank is a new entity. It fits within the spirit of the Secretary-General’s overall reform efforts to adapt the United Nations to better support the implementation of the SDGs on the ground,” she added.
The IPoA recognizes that LDCs represent an enormous human and natural resource potential for world economic growth, welfare and prosperity and that addressing their special development needs will contribute to the cause of peace, prosperity and sustainable development for all.
Based on the lessons learned during the ten-year implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action, the IPoA develops a number of goals and objectives, principles as well as priority areas for action. The overarching goal of the IPoA is to overcome the structural challenges faced by the LDCs in order to eradicate poverty and achieve internationally agreed development goals, with a special focus on MDGs.
It specifically aims to enable half of the LDCs to meet the criteria for graduation. This is closely related to the objective to achieve sustained, equitable and inclusive economic growth in LDCs to at least a level of 7 percent annually.
The IPoA focuses on reducing vulnerabilities of LDCs and addresses new challenges to development including the effects of the interlinked food, fuel and economic crises and climate change, with a strong focus on structural transformation trough increasing productive capacity. The IPoA also aims at generating full and productive employment and decent work for all, particularly for the youth.
According to the Istanbul Programme of Action, the national policies of LDCs and international support measures will focus in the next 10 years on achieving among others sustained, equitable and inclusive economic growth by strengthening the productive capacity of the least developed countries.
Those measures will help build human capacities by fostering sustained, equitable and inclusive human and social development, gender equality and the empowerment of women.
The measures will reduce the vulnerability of LDCs to economic, natural and environmental shocks and disasters through strengthening their resilience, ensure enhanced financial resources, and enhance good governance at all levels, by strengthening democratic processes, institutions and the rule of law. [IDN-InDepthNews – 24 December 2017]
Photo: Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu (centre), Under-Secretary-General, High Representative of the Secretary-General for the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDs, and the UN Secretary-General’s representative on the Council of the Technology Bank for LDCs with Council members.
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