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External sources (not reviewed)

Under this focus on the uncertainty of the world energy situation, the following issues were discussed: how to cope with the impact of the price of oil at its peak; how to cope with the impact of the escalation of the price of oil on economic growth and financial flows in the developing countries and particularly in the least developed countries; how to cope with destabilizing financial flows; how to encourage the preservation of resources; and how to promote the development of alternative fuels for transportation.

Governments, in their mandates to respect, protect and fulfil, must ensure that women without purchasing power can face episodes of high prices or market disruptions without enduring chronic hunger or asset shedding that would erode their future productivity and jeopardize their livelihoods, as well as the livelihoods of those who depend on them.

Their situation is further compounded by the current spike in food prices, which is forcing those living in poverty to buy even less expensive and less nutritious food.

Since the onset of the current global crisis, the increase in energy prices had led to a rise in overall commodity prices, and subsequently, increased costs throughout transportation and distribution chains.

The reduction in the institutional budget will be achieved despite increased costs through efficiency and cost-reduction measures, including maximizing the use of new technologies to reduce travel and other operating costs; sharing operations functions through establishment of multi-country service centres; eliminating redundancies and duplication of functions; rigorous attribution of direct costs resulting from activities funded by other resources; and careful consideration of the transition and stabilization costs of investment projects approaching completion.

In addition, future spikes in crude oil prices could create challenges to energy security, and many countries could suffer catastrophic damage from climate change.

Among the most important are the secular rise in food prices and the resulting nutrition scarcity; extreme volatility in commodity prices during the past four years, which has had negative cumulative effects on growth and has threatened to unwind hard-earned developmental successes, not least by inducing inflation in least developed countries that were otherwise following sound macroeconomic policies; lingering effects of the international financial crisis and subsequent adjustments; and undermining debt sustainability by increasing debt levels through borrowing for budgetary support, and by lowering growth prospects for many least developed countries.

In order to mitigate the impact of increased expenditure due to additional safety and security measures and rising rents and utility costs, the Department was reducing the physical office space assigned to United Nations information centres by, inter alia, donating library collections to local universities or sharing space with other members of the United Nations country team.

economic and social due to the multiple ramifications of such migration in the countries of departure, transit and destination: job insecurity, problems of cultural integration, brain drain, job losses, increased social security expenditure, and migrants transferring money and social investments to their country of origin.

Oil price levels were projected to vary according to different policy scenarios, but there were clear indications that the “age of cheap oil” was over and that, in the absence of policy action, oil prices would rise substantially.

With regard to the follow-up to the Goldstone report (A/HRC/12/48), we particularly hope that, within the coming months as United Nations bodies review the report again, those members of the Security Council who rock-solidly and unwaveringly support the Israeli regime in total disregard of the norms and principles of international human rights and international humanitarian law will adjust their positions to the growing international demand for justice and the prosecution of the Gaza war criminals.

Hence the rising demand for greater United Nations coordination, simplification and harmonization; for greater effectiveness through, for example, wider use of RBM and a strengthened country-level role for the United Nations Resident Coordinator; for a strategic concentration of funds on MDGs and other selected key targets; and for a degree of focus on country programmes that is forcing UNESCO to ask searching questions about the right balance between its global and local roles.

Delegates noted that international food commodity prices remained high by historical standards, with recent weather-related natural disasters pushing up international wheat and rice prices.

Moreover, medium and low-income economies importing fossil fuel are particularly vulnerable to price volatility and price increases, which could upset their external payments balance, cause economic instability at the macro level and prevent Governments from investing in technical and social infrastructure, resulting in higher energy costs for households.

The trend could be towards an increase in demand for HCFC-22 as feedstock.

The unprecedented surge in peacekeeping operations had not improved the participation of vendors from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, which must be a fundamental part of procurement reform; the Group noted the efforts made to ensure fair access for vendors from those countries, with regard to the streamlining of the registration procedure for example, but considered that further efforts were needed.

An engineering office was set up with partner support in response to requests from the population to reduce imported equipment use, which increases the price of local materials.

The Representative of WHO stated that also other programmes in WHO were vulnerable to cost increase and confirmed that the Codex programme was not treated differently in the budget process.

Under the present, relatively weak, global economic conditions, an oil price rise of 50 per cent sustained over the coming two years could lower world gross product growth by 0.5 to 1 percentage point.4 The impact could be stronger if it induced other commodity prices to rise as well and if increased uncertainty triggered turmoil in the financial market, effects not considered in the given estimate of the impact.

He pointed to research by UNCTAD and from the academic community showing that the commodity price boom could be traced to non-fundamental factors, including the so-called “financialization” of commodity markets.

Since Ivorian gem-quality rough diamonds are between 1 and 20 carats, the increase of polished diamond prices has had a positive impact on the selling prices of Ivorian diamonds.

The results showed that: (a) the demand for statistical training is increasing as more and more countries realize the critical importance of statistical information in formulating and monitoring development policies; (b) the three focus areas (the Millennium Development Goals, SNA and information and communications technology) in the strategic plan of the Institute for the academic years 2010-2014 were identified as high priority areas; and (c) the training programme should have a greater emphasis on the skills (competency) development of government officials, including higher level officials.

With the continued rise in the fishmeal price, plant protein concentrates (soybean protein concentrate, canola protein concentrate, pea protein concentrate and corn/wheat gluten meals) will gain increasing prominence over regular plant protein meals within aquafeeds for high-trophic-level cultured species and crustaceans.

He called on the developed States to facilitate transfer of technology, improved seeds and modern irrigation techniques and to stop production of biofuels, which exacerbated the rise in food commodity prices.

Although the appraised value of gold exports has risen when compared month to month with figures for 2011 — a consequence of inflation in the international market price — the weight in ounces of exported gold remains broadly the same as in 2011, even though mining activity is increasing throughout the country.