‘Bridgetown Covenant’ a blueprint for development programmes in UNCTAD – Husbands

Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Sandra Husbands is in the Swiss city of Geneva negotiating with a United Nations agency on a new “Bridgetown Covenant” to guide the development and execution of its programmes in developing countries, she revealed on Tuesday.

In a video conference call from the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Husbands made the announcement during a media briefing at UNCTAD 15, which is being held in Bridgetown until Thursday.

Husbands said the discussions so far have been promising.

She told reporters: “Many ambassadors and officials and experts are involved in the negotiations to help us arrive at an outcomes document that is called the Bridgetown Covenant. The Bridgetown Covenant will guide the work of UNCTAD over the next few years for a world programme.”

Husbands was careful not to say what specific areas of interest would be involved in the new agreement being negotiated, but said: “In it we have been able to include things that are of great importance to developing countries – the issues that are relevant to us, the information that we need in order to be able to plan better and to advocate better for the benefit of our citizens. So the Bridgetown Covenant is proceeding quite well.”

She also noted that meetings were held with an expert group – the extended Bureau – on specific areas of interest, as well as meetings with coordinators of various movements “to hammer out” further details of the Bridgetown Covenant.

“Accompanying that particular negotiation is the political declaration, known as the Spirit of Speightstown, and the Spirit of Speightstown provides us with an opportunity to share generally about a number of things that we believe that are of critical importance for the world to pay great attention to,” she said.

“So the negotiations are going well and we are working hard and we are anticipating that we will be able to arrive at positive conclusions that will be for the benefit of all developing countries and their people.”

UNCTAD, a permanent intergovernmental body that was established by the UN General Assembly, works closely with member countries to promote development.

For the first time, UNCTAD is conducting its highest decision-making meeting in a small island developing state by holding its 15th session here.
(MM)