LAYING GROUNDWORK FOR THIRD UN CONFERENCE ON LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, PREPARATORY COMMITTEE TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS, 24 - 28 JULY

21 July 2000

Press Release
DEV/2253

LAYING GROUNDWORK FOR THIRD UN CONFERENCE ON LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, PREPARATORY COMMITTEE TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS, 24 - 28 JULY

20000721 Background Release

Policies and measures to help the progressive integration of poor countries into the world economy are among issues to be discussed by an intergovernmental body laying the groundwork for the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries, to be held next year.

The Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee, meeting from 24 to 28 July, will review preparations for the Conference and also assess progress in the implementation of international support measures for those countries, particularly in the areas of official development assistance (ODA), debt relief, investment and trade. The measures are embodied in the Programme of Action adopted at the Second United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries held in Paris in September 1990.

The first session of the Preparatory Committee will also consider the draft provisional agenda for the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries, to be held in Brussels from 14 to 20 May 2001 (document A/CONF.191/IPC/L.1). The agenda was proposed by General Assembly resolution 54/235. The Preparatory Committee will also examine the draft provisional rules of procedure for the Conference (document A/CONF.191/IPC/L.2) and the organizational aspects of the Conference.

Documents before the session include three reports of inter-agency consultations on the preparatory process, the objective of which was to ensure the full mobilization and coordination of all relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, as well as other relevant institutions. Other reports cover three meetings of the Consultative Forum, established to serve as a medium of interfacing and consensus-building between the United Nations organizations and agencies and other stakeholders, including civil society and the private sector.

The three expert-level preparatory meetings were one for English-speaking African least developed countries (LDCs) (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 27-29 March 2000) (A/CONF.191/IPC/2); one for Asian and the Pacific LDCs (Kathmandu, Nepal, 3 to 5 April 2000) (A/CONF.191/IPC/3); and one for French-speaking African LDCs and Haiti (Niamey, Niger, 18 to 20 April 2000) (A/CONF.191/IPC/4).

Other documents include a note by the secretariat of the Conference on the contributions of organizations and agencies to the preparatory process; and draft country-level programmes of action prepared by governments of least developed countries, being made available to the Preparatory Committee for comments to help in finalizing those programmes and background documents.

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At a meeting held in Geneva last April, the Consultative Forum said there was need to focus the preparatory process on raising awareness and generating support in donor countries for new commitments at the Conference. The Conference should agree to new concessions in favour of LDCs, it said. To secure such concessions, it was suggested that a campaign to win public support in donor countries should be carried out. The role of non-governmental organizations in vigorous advocacy work before the Conference was suggested.

A second inter-agency meeting on the preparatory process urged consultations among the agencies to enhance joint cooperative efforts. Briefing the meeting, the Executive Secretary of the Conference, Anna Kajumulo, said country-level preparatory processes had been launched in 46 least developed countries with country visits by members of the United Nations Conference Trade and Development (UNCTAD) secretariat. National preparatory committees had been established and local resource persons designated to provide substantive support to them. Three regional coordinators had also been appointed. Assistance by the European Union had proved critical in lending momentum and seriousness to country-level preparations.

Experts from English-speaking African LDCs meeting at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last March, said the Programme of Action had failed to address the development problems of LDCs and to deliver the desired results. The ODA target of 0.15 per cent of donor's gross national product (GNP) had not been met. Another major shortcoming was the inability to translate the global programme into action programmes at the country level. In addition, the ongoing processes of globalization and liberalization were complicating implementation of the Programme, as were the many uncoordinated policies and strategies pursued with development partners.

At the country level, the meeting noted that the development of African LDCs had continued to be constrained by shortcomings in physical infrastructure and human resources development, low levels of domestic resource mobilization, shortcomings in macroeconomic policy design and management, and severe socio-economic consequences of local or regional conflicts. The experts considered that national-level programmes had not given sufficient attention to regional cooperation aspects. Well-articulated strategies to link national development and regional integration efforts were needed.

A meeting of experts for the Asian-Pacific region, held in Kathmandu, Nepal, last April, also noted similar problems, stating that the implementation of the Programme of Action had fallen short of expectations. They called for priority examination of the reasons for the failure of past efforts by both the LDCs and their development partners to address the critical development problems facing poor countries. The participants suggested that LDCs should continue to improve their macroeconomic conditions and also further intensify their trade diversification efforts. Support for LDCs should also include implementation of their fast-track accession to the World Trade Organization and their participation in multilateral trade negotiations. Success stories found in the LDCs must be examined for replication, wherever possible.

The Programme of Action for the least developed countries for the 1990s adopted at the end of the Second Paris Conference recognized that effective follow-up and

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monitoring mechanisms should support the development efforts of the LDCs, and that they were key to the successful implementation of the Programme. A three-tiered mechanism was agreed upon to cover national, regional and global follow-up to monitor the effective implementation of the Programme.

A mid-term review of the implementation carried out by a high-level intergovernmental meeting held in New York in 1995 concluded that the least developed countries continued to be marginalized. It adopted conclusions to accelerate the implementation of the Programme of Action during the second half of the 1990s.

According to UNCTAD, the international community in 1971 recognized the existence of a category of countries whose distinctness lies not only in the profound poverty of their people, but also in the weakness of their economic, institutional and human resources. Currently, 48 countries with a combined population of 610.5 million are identified as "least developed countries". The UNCTAD says these countries are particularly ill-equipped to develop their domestic economies and to ensure an adequate standard of living for their populations.

To respond to the challenges posed by their situation, the United Nations held the first Conference on Least Developed Countries in Paris in 1981. At that Conference, the international community unanimously adopted the Substantial New Programme of Action for the 1980s for the Least Developed Countries, containing guidelines for domestic action by the LDCs, which were to be complemented by international support measures. The UNCTAD says that despite major policy reforms initiated by many of these countries, and supportive measures taken by a number of donors in the areas of aid, debt relief and trade, the economic situation of the LDCs as a whole worsened during the 1980s.

A Second United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, also held in Paris from 3 to 14 September 1990, reviewed the socio-economic progress in those countries during the 1980s, as well as progress in international support measures during that decade. Drawing on the experience and lessons of the 1980s, the Conference agreed on the strategies and development priorities for those countries in the 1990s. The outcome of the Conference was embodied in the Paris Declaration and the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries.

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