On July 17, the United Nations University hosted a symposium on "The Kyushu-Okinawa Summit: The Challenges and Opportunities for the Developing World in the 21st Century." The conference was jointly organized by the Tokyo-based Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development, the Toronto-based G8 Research Group and UNU.
Sir Nicholas Bayne, a former British diplomat who is now a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, is busy setting examinations to judge the performance of leaders of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations. It was notable that developing-country concerns represent an important component of the examination.
The rector of UNU, Professor Hans van Ginkel, cited the U.N. secretary general's Millennium Report regarding the quest for freedom from fear (through conflict management and resolution), freedom from want (through economic development and growth) and sustaining the future (through careful husbanding of the earth's resources and ecosystem).