Commonwealth Trade Symposium
23-24 June, 2015
Chair of Southern Voice, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, was among the members of the SV network who joined the Commonwealth Trade Symposium on “Shaping a Global Trade Agenda for Development” in Johannesburg on 23-24 June.
Bhattacharya, who is also the Chair of the LDC IV Monitor, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), was a panellist at the session on “Trade in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: The right role?”. The session was moderated by the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the other panellists were Professor Rorden Wilkinson, Sussex University; Miho Shirotori, Chief, Global and Regional Trade Analysis Section,Trade Analysis Branch, UNCTAD; and Dan Gay, Inter-Regional Adviser on LDCs, Committee for Development Policy Secretariat, UNDESA.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman (Centre for Policy Dialogue – Bangladesh) and H. Bohela Lunogelo (Economic and Social Research Foundation – Tanzania) also joined the event which brought together officials, experts, the private sector and other stakeholders to review new and well-established trade related issues.
LDC IV Monitor Expert Group Meeting
25 June, 2015
Debapriya Bhattacharya, Bohela H. Lunogelo and Professor Mustafizur Rahman also addressed an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) organised by the LDC IV Monitor and Commonwealth Secretariat in Johannesburg on 25 June 2015.
LDC IV Monitor is a partnership of eight international institutions established in 2011 in the wake of the Fourth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (UN LDC IV) aiming to provide independent assessment of implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA).
Bhattacharya, also the Chair of LDC IV Monitor, was one of the lead discussants at the opening session on “the Scope and Focus of Monitor’s Contribution to the Mid-term Review of IPoA”, chaired by Mohammad Razzaque (ComSec).
Lunogelo was a lead discussant at the session viz. “the chapter on SDGs, FfDs, and IPoA: Seeking Congruence in Post-2015 Period” which was chaired by Dan Gay (UN), while Rahman chaired the session on “Data Revolution and Implications for the LDCs”.