The United Nations on Wednesday kicked off a high-level meeting to discuss the current global financial and economic crisis and its impact on development.

The three-day high-level meeting came as the first conference in the history of the United Nations to discuss the issue of the international financial and economic crisis. The meeting was held after the April summit of the Group of 20 (G20) largest economies in the world and before the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations and the G20 conference in Pittesburgh, the United States, in September.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks during the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development at the UN headquarters in New York on June 24, 2009. The UN kicked off a three-day high-level meeting on Wednesday to assess the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression. [Xinhua]

As high-level delegates from around the globe gathered at the UN Headquarters in New York to discuss how to address the economic meltdown while taking the interests of all nations into account, top United Nations officials issued urgent calls for action to ease the burden on the world's poorest.

"At this critical moment, we must all join our efforts to prevent the global crisis, with its myriad faces, from turning into a social, environmental and humanitarian tragedy," General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto said at the start of the high-level meeting, officially known as the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development.

He called for a solution to the current turmoil that will not leave "the vast majority of humanity to their fate," exhorting the representatives from nearly 150 Member States expected to address the three-day gathering to "take decisions that affect us all collectively to the greatest extent possible."

For his part, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underscored that the current crisis is "not a cause for any one person, nation or group of nations. It is a challenge for us all."

Despite signs of financial stabilization and growth in some pockets of the world, he said that "the real impact of the crisis could stretch for years."

A multi-pronged approach is needed to stem the catastrophe, Ban said, that incorporates boosting access to education, promoting "green" growth, helping subsistence farmers and increasing resources to fight diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis.

"The world institutions created generations ago must be made more accountable, more representative and more effective," he said, voicing regret that reforming financial institutions has divided member states.

The crisis has revealed the need for a "renewed multilateralism," he said, adding that "challenges are linked. Our solutions must be, too."

The event will also feature several roundtable discussions on topics including the role of the United Nations in responding to the crisis and how to mitigate the impact of the downturn on development, featuring, among others, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and UN Development Program (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark.

Earlier this year, an expert panel appointed by D'Escoto and chaired by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz emphasized that international finance structures must be drastically overhauled in the face of the current global economic crisis, calling on wealthier nations to direct one percent of their economic stimulus packages to help developing countries address poverty.

A coordinated approach -- bringing together not just the G8 or even G20 nations, but the "G-192" representing all members of the Assembly -- is needed to pull the world out of the recession, according to the recommendations of the Commission of Experts on Reforms of International Finance and Economic Structures.

The experts also called for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to increase the availability of funds for hard-hit nations.

(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2009)