UN BRUSSELS CONFERENCE TO DEAL WITH FATE OF WORLD’S POOREST COUNTRIES

Global policy makers will confront the economic isolation and severe poverty of the world’s 49 poorest countries at a United Nations conference to be convened in Brussels, Belgium, from 14 to 20 May.

Action is desperately needed.  More than half of the 630 million people in the 49 least developed countries (LDCs) live on less than a dollar a day.  Forty-three per cent have no access to safe drinking water and 50 per cent are illiterate.  Average life expectancy is 51 years.

In a global environment where trade and investment have reached unprecedented magnitude, the LDCs are cut off from the mainstream of the global economy.  They were left behind in the development boom of the 1960s and 1970s that so impressively benefited many countries in Asia and Latin America.  And despite a worldwide commitment to fight poverty in recent decades, the number of countries that are desperately poor has risen steadily.  In fact, the number of LDCs has nearly doubled during the past 30 years -– from 25 to 49.

“The inhabitants of the world’s least developed countries wage a daily struggle against abject poverty”, said United Nations Secretary-General

Kofi Annan.  “They are increasingly marginalized from globalization and the many benefits it can bring.  In the battle to rid the world of dehumanizing poverty, the Brussels Conference must mark a turning point.”

Hosted by the European Union, the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries will attempt to help the LDCs gain access to the mainstream of the global economy.

The Conference will build on pledges made by leaders of the world’s nations at the Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000, when leaders of prosperous countries were called upon to take action in three areas of crucial concern to the world’s least developed countries: 

-- Duty- and quota-free market access;

-- Cancellation of all official bilateral debts;

-- More generous development assistance.

Action in these three areas, and the promotion of productive capacity and infrastructure development in the LDCs, will be the focal points of the

Conference.  Participants will include policy makers, with a leading role taken by leaders from the least developed countries themselves, and representatives of non-governmental organizations and other sectors of civil society.

Announcements by donor countries and United Nations agencies of “deliverables” –- concrete commitments of resources, programmes and initiatives –- to support LDC development will be a defining feature of the Conference.

Some steps have already been taken.  In February of this year, the European Union announced an agreement known as "Everything But Arms", which will phase out duties or tariffs on all products from the LDCs that cross the European Union’s borders, with the exception of weapons.  More recently, Norway announced it will provide unrestricted market access for all LDC exports, and China and Brazil have committed to cancelling all outstanding debt of the LDCs.  Development experts agree that providing broader access to global markets for LDCs can prove to be of critical importance.

“The "Everything But Arms" initiative is a very positive step, but there is still a long way to go before obstacles to LDC trade opportunities are brought down”, said Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and of the Brussels Conference.  “The topic of greater market access will be on the agenda at the Conference.”

The Brussels Conference will focus the attention of governments, experts and multilateral agencies on a number of areas that are of crucial importance for a successful outcome, including:  health, financing, education, energy, transport, agriculture, services, the digital divide, governance, infrastructure development, women and youth.

Although some progress has been made in recent years, the vast majority of people in the LDCs have no access to affordable health care.  The AIDS pandemic, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and diarrhea threaten large segments of the population.  Of the world's 30 countries with the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate, 16 are LDCs:  13 from sub-Saharan Africa, two from Asia and one from the Caribbean.

On 26 April, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for a major new global campaign in the fight against HIV/AIDS in a statement delivered in Nigeria to the African Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases.  Speaking to African leaders, he said that a “war chest” of $7 billion to

$10 billion was needed annually, and he proposed the creation of a new Global Fund dedicated to fighting AIDS and other diseases.  In Brussels, Conference participants will be discussing the Secretary-General’s call to action, in addition to other initiatives.

For further information, contact:  Tim Wall (212) 963-5851 or Laufey Love (212) 963-3507, United Nations Department of Public Information.

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