The organization founded in 1964 to promote trade and development among developing countries is the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, abbreviated UNCTAD.
The United Nations General Assembly established UNCTAD in response to developing countries’ concerns that existing institutions, including GATT, the IMF, and the World Bank, did not adequately address their economic challenges. Its first conference was held in Geneva in 1964, and its permanent secretariat is based there.
UNCTAD works on trade, finance, investment, technology, transport, and development policy. One of its notable contributions was helping create the Generalized System of Preferences, which gives developing countries improved access for certain exports to developed-country markets. It also produces research and data used in debates about debt, commodities, globalization, and economic inequality.
The organization now uses the public name “UN Trade and Development,” but it retains the long-established acronym UNCTAD. That change can create confusion in quizzes. UNCTAD is not the OECD, which primarily coordinates policy among developed economies, nor the World Bank, whose central role is development financing.