The UN comes to town

Well, what can I say, when the UN comes to town, it really goes to town. Central Accra has been transformed into a hi-security, be-suited and air-conditioned enclave. Motorcades complete with limos and motorcycle outriders whizz past with sirens at full blast, policemen with guns are everywhere and my pass has to be scanned whenever I enter the conference site.

Today is really the first full day of formal UNCTAD proceedings. It’s my first time at an official conference like this so maybe I should give a flavour of what’s going on. To be honest, it’s not always that clear. Official programmes are out of date as soon as they are printed; one is always arriving too early or too late for things; and you are always convinced something more interesting may be happening elsewhere (although it probably isn’t!)

NGO bods who last week at the civil society forum were wearing t-shirts and sandals - and quite frankly looking a bit hot and sweaty - have now been transformed in their attire. We are now dressed to impress the government delegates, suited and booted and some (definitely not me) are even braving high-heels. The air con alone at this event is probably doubling Ghana’s annual carbon footprint, but it’s also a big relief.

Meanwhile, I’ve spent the morning running around sorting logistics for our event on Wednesday to launch our new trade report Raw Deal. I’ve confirmed our speakers and talked to people about providing food and drink – which will hopefully bring in some hungry delegates.

I’ve also been ‘touting’ myself and our new report around the press room. I did some filming with Brazilian TV and hope that others will pick up on the report too as the week progresses. Luckily I’ve found that every country delegation has a pigeonhole where papers can be placed for them to pick up – that will be handy when it comes to handing out the report and making sure the right people get it. We really hope it will be useful evidence for developing country trade negotiators who are discussing trade deals with the EU right now.

Now a group of EU civil society folks are trying to track down the Slovenian delegation – why? Well, Slovenia holds the EU Presidency right now and so are important players. Some UK groups have also been trying to meet with UK government people but as I write they’ve not yet been able to fit us in…

Quote of the day goes to Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organisation:

“We are not a development agency. Our budget is only 200 million a year and that is probably smaller than some of you NGOs.”

I wish.

Vicky Cann