I had the honor of speaking at the U.N. Headquarters in New York on commodities and economic diversification. The dialogue, convened on May 21 2026 by the President of the U.N. General Assembly, focused on global commodity markets, particularly the energy, minerals, and agricultural commodities that remain central to the economic performance of commodity-dependent countries.
I spoke in the second panel on “Strategies for Economic and Export Diversification and Value Addition for Sustainable Development.” I emphasized that every commodity boom unfolds within a specific global economic context that creates distinct opportunities and unique risks. This time around, the global economy is characterized by geoeconomic fragmentation, the resurgence of industrial policy to secure minerals supply chains, and growing efforts by resource-rich countries to build broader economic linkages around their resource sectors rather than merely export unprocessed commodities.
I also outlined a broad set of principles at the national, regional, and global levels to enable resource-rich countries to move beyond extraction and achieve structural transformation. These include adopting a holistic approach at the national level; pursuing transnational coordination of resource-based industrialization efforts at the regional level; and specifying the roles of multilateral organizations, corporate philanthropies, and the private sector globally.
Here is the video replay of the session. My remarks begin at 01:59:00 and continue until 02:13:00. Informal Interactive Dialogue on Commodity Markets – General Assembly, 80th session | UN Web TV
Zainab Usman 