NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, July 17, 2006

Excerpt: “Markets can work for everyone but this requires an innovative approach that unleashes entrepreneurship at the local level,” the WBCSD argued at a recent United Nations (UN) hearing. “Many of our members are already promoting sustainable and inclusive business activities with partners from the development community and civil society, and we believe there is much more we can do.”

The objective of the UN General Assembly?s hearing was to create a space where civil society and the private sector can interact with Member States and offer input into the midterm review process of the implementation of the “Program of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the decade 2001 ? 2010”. The program aims at improving the human condition of the more than 700 million people of the fifty Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which represent the poorest and weakest segment of the international community. Adopted at the Third United Nations Conference on the LDCs in Brussels in 2001, it provides a framework for a global partnership between LDCs and their development partners.