Events

MINSK, 3 March (BelTA) - Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations Andrei Dapkiunas attended the ECOSOC roundtable on middle-income countries at the UN headquarters in New York on 2 March 2017, BelTA learned from the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This event was organized for the first time within the ECOSOC segment on operational activities for development dedicated to the launch of the UN General Assembly’s resolution on quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development.

Andrei Dapkiunas laid out the vision on the place and role of middle-income countries in global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and made observations regarding the engagement of agencies and programs of the UN development system with this category of states. The Belarusian diplomat mentioned the results of the first Ministerial Meeting of a Like-Minded Group of Countries Supporters of Middle-Income Countries that took place in New York in September 2016, and highlighted the need to establish a coordination mechanism that would involve all elements of the UN system in order to facilitate the provision of international assistance to middle-income countries and to use their experience and expertise for the benefit of global sustainable development.

Andrei Dapkiunas underlined the need to develop a more nuanced country classification that goes beyond the narrow frame of per capita income criteria and takes into account specific challenges of these countries.

The Head of the Belarusian Mission to the UN also proposed to vest the function of watching over the MICs agenda and providing analytical and logistical support to MICs in the UN with the UN Secretariat and the Committee for Development Policy.