Partnership with LDCs not only a moral duty but also economic one

Over the course of 40 years, from 1981 to 2021, the international community held four global conferences with the aim of developing the group of least developed countries (LDCs), lifting them out of poverty and helping them to integrate strongly into the international economy.The first and second conferences were held in Paris, and the first conference came after the UN General Assembly (UNGA) expressed serious concern about the seriousness of the economic and social situation of the least developed countries and decided to convene the conference in order to formulate the new programme of action for those countries in the ’80s in its final form, and the conference adopted the aforementioned programme with the aim of developing the economies of those countries and enabling them to provide minimum standards of nutrition, health, housing, education, and job opportunities for their citizens, especially for the rural and urban poor.The Second UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-II) was held in 1990 to continue focusing on the need to take special measures for these countries, adopting the Paris Declaration and programme of action for the least developed countries for the 1990s.The LDC-II in Paris discussed the social and economic progress made in the least developed countries in the 1980s, as well as progress in international support measures during that decade. In the presence of representatives of 150 governments, the conference’s participants agreed on the development strategies and priorities of those countries and to formulate domestic and international policies and measures to accelerate the development process in the least developed countries for the 1990s.The Third UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-III) was held in 2001 in Brussels and hosted by the EU, ten and a half years after the LDC-II in Paris. It adopted the Brussels programme of action for the decade 2001-10, with the specific objective of making significant progress towards halving by 2015 the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and suffering from hunger, as well as promoting the sustainable development of the least developed countries to accelerate sustained economic growth and sustainable development, and to end marginalisation by eliminating poverty, inequality, and deprivation in these countries and enabling them to integrate meaningfully into the global economy.Following the LDC-III, the UNGA established the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) to ensure effective follow-up, implementation, monitoring, and review of the Brussels programme of Action.The office serves 91 countries, all of which face their own unique sets of challenges in their pursuit of sustainable development and internationally agreed goals. The office works to mobilise support and advocacy for vulnerable groups of nations, raise awareness of the economic, social, and environmental potential in these countries, and ensure that the urgent needs of the 1.1 billion people who live in them remain high on the international agenda.The Fourth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) was held in Istanbul in May 2011 to assess the implementation of the Brussels programme of action by LDCs and their development partners.The conference adopted a programme of action for the decade 2011-2020, together with the Istanbul Declaration, and the data issued by the conference indicated that more than 75% of the population of the LDCs still lived in poverty and that the exit of only three countries from this category. Until then the past three decades were of great concern to the international community.The Istanbul programme of action top priority was productive capacity, which includes infrastructure, energy, science, technology and innovation, and private sector development, followed by agriculture, food security, rural development, trade, human and social development that includes education and training, population and primary health, youth development, and women’s empowerment, as well as other emerging challenges such as economic shocks, climate change and environmental sustainability, disaster risk reduction, capacity building and domestic resource mobilisation, foreign debt, foreign direct investment, remittances and good governance at all levels.The current 46 least developed countries are home to about 880mn people, which is 12% of the worlds population. They constitute the poorest and most vulnerable segment of the international community as they face serious structural impediments to growth and account for less than two percent of global GDP and about one percent of international trade. The Committee for Development Policy (CDP) reviews the list of least developed countries every three years.For a country to be removed from the list of least developed countries, it must meet a number of criteria to upgrade its classification during two consecutive reviews. Additionally, two countries were removed from the list between 1971-2011, and since the adoption of the Istanbul programme of action in 2011, three additional countries have been upgraded, and five more countries are scheduled to be upgraded by 2024.A total of 15 countries have met the criteria for upgrading since 2011, indicating significant progress, although the approved target of having half of the least developed countries meet the criteria for upgrading by 2020 has not been met.The UN started giving special attention to the least developed countries in late ‘60s, recognising that these countries are the most vulnerable among the members of the international community, and considered extremely disadvantaged in their development process for structural, historical as well as geographical reasons.According to international experts, the totally inadequate living standards in the least developed countries are a source of grave concern to the international community, and these countries should have means to overcome acute hunger, malnutrition, diseases, illiteracy and all other manifestations of poverty.Although the least developed countries bear the primary responsibility for their comprehensive development, the international community, especially the developed countries, relevant international organisations as well as capable developing countries and non-governmental organisations should provide substantial assistance to these countries to overcome their poverty.Solidarity, co-operation and partnership with the least developed countries, the poorest countries and the most vulnerable, and with their people are not only a moral duty, but also an economic and political one, and the least developed countries represent a huge potential of human and natural resources to realise economic growth, well-being, prosperity, food and energy security in the world. A new strengthened, successful global partnership that effectively addresses the special needs of the least developed countries will contribute to peace, prosperity and sustainable development for all.