UNCTAD Conferences have aroused scepticism in previous editors of the IDS Bulletin. The issue devoted to UNCTAD III begins with the words 'Those who still entertained fond hopes that UNCTAD, in its present form, could help bring about a more equitable distribution of income among the world's nations should have few remaining illusions after the third Conference in Santiago' (IDS Bulletin 1973: 1). Three years later, in the run-up to the fourth Conference, the editorial began with a spoof dictionary definition of UNCTAD as 'a gathering at which hostility is veiled by expression of high-minded sentiment, and constructive action thwarted by passage of elusive resolutions' (IDS Bulletin 1976: 2). How pleasant it would be to strike a more optimistic note in this, the third issue to concentrate on an UNCTAD assembly. And how encouraging. both for the ldcs and for those of us in the industrialised world whose work assumes the feasibility of negotiated change in the international economy.