The next address of the IIEA's Development Matters series, which is supported by Irish Aid, will be given by Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In her speech, entitled Polyglobalisation: Debt, Trade and Geopolitics, she explores the links between development and trade and the place of developing countries in the complex world of international trade. Against the background of geopolitical shifts and competing visions of multilateralism, she explains the important role of UNCTAD in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and in amplifying the voices of least developed countries in multilateral fora. She also discusses reform of the international financial architecture which is urgently needed to ensure that the debt crisis does not become a development crisis.

About the Speaker:

Rebeca Grynspan is an economist and politician from Costa Rica who has been the Secretary General of UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) since 2021. As the Secretary General of UNCTAD, Ms Grynspan has focused the world’s attention on relevant issues such as the reduction of inequality and poverty, gender equality, South–South cooperation as a tool for development and achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the need for international financial architectural reform.

She is also coordinator of the task team of the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance, set up by the United Nations Secretary-General to help support developed and developing countries face the economic shocks related to the war in Ukraine. Additionally, she is currently a member of the Group of 20 High-level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

Prior to her appointment at UNCTAD, she was the Secretary-General of the Ibero-American Conference from 2014 to 2021. She is also a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as well as former Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the United Nations, she served as Vice-President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998.