The 15th session of the UN Committee for Development Policy (CDP) convened from 18-22 March 2013, in New York, US, and the report of that session has now been released.
According to the report, the session addressed: the role of science, technology and innovation (STI) in achieving sustainable development; the vulnerabilities and development needs of small island developing States (SIDS); emerging issues in international development in the post-2015 era; issues related to the least developed countries (LDCs), including guidelines regarding graduation from the LDC category; and monitoring the development progress of Samoa, which is expected to graduate in 2014.
April 2013: The report of the 15th session of the UN Committee for Development Policy (CDP), which convened from 18-22 March 2013, in New York, US, has been released. According to the report, the session addressed: the role of science, technology and innovation (STI) in achieving sustainable development; the vulnerabilities and development needs of small island developing States (SIDS); emerging issues in international development in the post-2015 era; issues related to the least developed countries (LDCs), including guidelines regarding graduation from the LDC category; and monitoring the development progress of Samoa, which is expected to graduate in 2014.
On STI, the Committee noted that advancing a country’s STI capacity and ensuring its effective application in economic activities are indispensable to sustainable and inclusive development, and that scientific knowledge and technologies required to meet basic human needs and environmental challenges should be regarded as global public goods. In this regard, CDP called for a better system of incentives for promoting and more widely disseminating these technologies.
On SIDS’ vulnerabilities and development needs, the CDP stressed the importance of stabilizing the global economic and financial markets and international measures to minimize the impacts of climate change for the sustainable development of SIDS, and urged scaling up existing measures to support climate change adaptation in SIDS. On LDCs, the Committee proposed refining the reporting procedures of graduating and graduated countries to enhance and facilitate reporting on preparing and implementing smooth transition strategies.
On the post-2015 development agenda, the Committee stressed that international cooperation after 2015 will need to deliver effectively on: managing the growing interdependence of countries; promoting universally agreed social and environmental standards; and reducing the large inequalities in the economic development levels of countries.
The CDP is a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and provides inputs and independent advice to the Council on emerging cross-sectoral development issues and international cooperation for development. It is also responsible for reviewing the status of LDCs and monitoring their progress after graduation from the category. [Report on the fifteenth session] [CDP Website]