EVENT OF THE MONTH: JUNE 2014

Commemorative Summit 

on the

             50th Anniversary of the Group 77
 

                                Date: 14-15 June 2014
                                                Venue: Santa Cruz, Bolivia

The G77, established in 1964, is commemorating its 50th anniversary in June this year. It is the largest inter-governmental organization of developing countries within the UN system with a membership of 133. The coalition of more than 130 developing UN member states plus China has over 60 percent of the world's population. Bolivia holds the Chairmanship of G-77 for 2014.

There were 77 founding members of the organization and hence the name, 'Group of 77' , but by November 2013 the organization had since expanded to 133 member countries. The group was founded on June 15, 1964, by the "Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries" issued at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The first major meeting was in Algiers in 1967, where the basis for permanent institutional structures was begun. There are Chapters of the Group of 77 in Rome (FAO), Vienna (UNIDO), Paris (UNESCO), Nairobi (UNEP) and the Group of 24 in Washington, D.C. (International Monetary Fund and World Bank).

Website: http://www.g77.org