C
Cool
The donor countries may have the money, but the cool quotient undeniably goes to the LDC representatives. Delegates flowed by in beautiful, bright cloth that brightened the parliamentary halls.

D
Deliverables
Stung by allegations that its global conferences have degenerated into talk-shops, UNCTAD made all actors - governments; agencies; donors - stand and deliver. They were all made to outline concrete actions of what they have done and what they intend to do.
Doha, Qatar
The fourth World Trade Organisation ministers meeting will take place in November, in an effort to launch a new trade round. The meeting is likely to attract Seattle-type protests as global civil society is mobilising around the slogan, "No new round, turn-around" - a rallying call for reform of trade architecture. Countries of the North tried to make concessions to the LDC contingent on their accepting a new round at this conference. The meeting's being billed as a sink or swim session--an appropriate metaphor considering the fact that most delegates will be housed in ships because of a shortage of hotel rooms.
Debt
Looks like poor countries will get no relief here. There are talks about talks about a moratorium.

E
Everything but Alms (Sorry, Arms)
The European Union's centrepiece "deliverable". In March, the EU decided to extend market access to all products except arms from LDCs. Much touted throughout the conference as the way forward.

F
Farms
Activists and lobbyists attacked the EU plan, slating it "Everything but farms" - because it continues to protect the highly protected agricultural lobby. OECD countries spend 1-billion dollars a day on farm subsidies - roughly equivalent to the total GDP of the poorest countries.
Free Trade
The free trade award for UN LDC-111 goes to the women traders from Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar and Ghana who created an instant shopping mall in the third floor walkway, doing a roaring trade as per diems were splurged on cloth, bags and craft.
The women cocked a snoot at parliamentary regulations, which outlaw trading in its precinct.

G
Governance
This is the bargaining chip of the development partners, who say that "good governance" is a "necessary precondition" for higher aid and debt relief. It's caused the most headaches in the negotiations. By late yesterday, the parties were still fighting.
The LDCs objected to the governance conditionalities and to accession to international human rights institutions. Development partners held out on spending more money on governance; or on peacekeeping.
Globalisation
Not working for the LDCs. In the Nineties - the globalisation decade - their share of foreign investment declined by 39 per cent.

H
HIV/AIDS
Astoundingly, the pandemic was christened only an "emerging issue". Over nine in 10 of the 36 million people infected live in developing countries.
Hunger
Some 235 million people in the LDCs do not have adequate nutritious food.

I
Interactive thematic sessions
Another effort by UNCTAD to fight the talk-shop stigma - it moved away from the inane practice of statements toward an investigation of key issues. Sessions included agriculture; export strategies; HIV/AIDS; entrepreneurship and infrastructure development.

J
Jargon
This conference has bequeathed us with a whole new range of development speak. The Interactive Thematic Session sought to provide "Deliverables" for the LDCs who said they first needed an "Expanded HIPC" to ensure their "Good Governance". In English this means that poor countries said in a meeting that they needed debt relief to govern well.

K
Killed by AIDS
Thirteen million people have died, leaving 12 million orphans. Life expectancy in the least developed countries revised down from 59 years to 45 years. The pandemic is reaching its killing phase in Southern Africa.

L
Least Developed Countries
The term used to describe the 49 poorest countries in the world. These have doubled in number since 1970.

M
Mexico in March 2002
The UN Conference on Financing for Development. Most decisions that may cost - including aid; HIV/AIDS and debt relief - have been put off for this conference.

N
Non-governmental organisations (NGO)
Sometimes forget they're non-governmental and often not elected. Over 1,600 NGOs at the conference pushed for absolute, rather than relative, access to all negotiations. They complained that they had been housed five minutes away from the European Parliament in the Bibliotheque Solvey, rather than in the precinct. Whatever happened to critical distance, so essential to effective NGOs? Whatever happened to activists who know the difference between battles and wars?

O
Oxfam
This NGO remains a source of independent, critical research that keeps the global world on its toes. They did the report dubbed "Everything but farms" - which exposed the holes in the EU market access initiative. It is an example of how civil society can operate as a watch-dog, instead of a yap-dog, biting at the heels of imagined enemies.

Outcome
New Top UN official, another conference, more studies and appraisals to seek consensus to establish the basis for a common approach …

P
Partners
"Development partners" - a phrase deeply contested until the end. Rich countries want to expand the definition to include emerging market countries as donors.

Q
Quad
The term for the other rich squad: United States, Canada, Japan and EU. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expects the other three to follow the EU lead on market access.

R
Ricupero
Rubens Ricupero, UNCTAD Secretary-General
The most energetic greybeard around, he put in an appearance at every Interactive Thematic Session and extracted concessions from both the LDCs and their development partners.

S
Space
All issues jostled for space on a packed agenda. The aged didn't make it onto the agenda; gender barely featured; AIDS crept in. The next trade round tried to get in - the wily G77 got it stripped out.

T
Trade
The LDCs have 10 per cent of the world's people and only 0.5 per cent of its trade.

U
University
The World Trade University was launched on Wednesday - an UNCTAD effort to bring the LDCs into the trading system by training trade negotiators, strategists and business people. The University will be a clicks and bricks operation - it will be run off 15 virtual and physical campuses. Campuses will soon open in Beijing and Toronto.

V
Very expensive
The conference cost 12 million dollars to stage. Two hundred UN officials were flown in from New York and Geneva to help with logistics; 20, 000 metres of cable was laid; about 1,800 lunches were served every day. It should have been held in Haiti where FDI inflows are only 11 million dollars a year.

W
World Trade Organisation
The WTO presence at the Conference was muted, but its agenda was pushed. The North tried to tie any concessions to the South's support for a new trade round.

X
X-rated
Any discussion of "new and additional resources" was outlawed.

Y
Yesterday's heroes
The UN system is a legendary employer of yesterday's heroes. Two who put in a prominent appearance this week included the former president of Ghana Jerry Rawlings (wearing his UN Volunteers hat) and former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali (the secretary-general of the Organisation of Anglophone countries).

Z
Zero
At the end of the day, the results of the conference were best characterised by a cynical diplomat who quipped: "What we really negotiated was the size of the zero."