September 2007, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
The Expert Group Meeting organized by the Division for Sustainable Deveopment at the United Nations Headquarters on September 21, 2007 constituted an attempt to take a closer look on conditions for effective use of oil, gas and minerals revenues for local sustainable development. Speakers came primarily from NGO or local government backgrounds, in order to bring to the table a user perspective. The emphasis was put on “downstream” aspects of natural resources revenue management.
The meeting provided a platform to stimulate discussion on the use of non-renewable resource revenues for sustainable development at the local level in developing countries. Speakers from four countries discussed the performance and the impacts on the ground of development programmes, projects and activities financed by revenues from natural resources, in selected countries from Africa and Latin America.
The meeting was intended as a first step towards a broader comprehension of the efficiency and effectiveness of use of natural resource revenues at the local level for sustainable development and growth. It was hoped that the confrontation of experiences from countries at different levels of development and operating within different institutional models of local development will shed light on the constraints that limit and conditions which favor the effective and equitable use of natural resource revenues at the local level.
The meeting agenda was built to bring together the perspectives of various countries and various stakeholders, including field researchers and non-governmental organizations working on issues germane to the conference topic.
Presentations made by the speakers at the meeting are now available.
