Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee

 for Fourth United Nations Conference

 on Least Developed Countries

1^st Meeting (AM)

Preparatory Committee for May 2011 United Nations Conference on Least Developed

Countries Holds Organizational Session to Lay Groundwork for Event

 

The Preparatory Committee for the upcoming Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held an organizational session today to assess preparations thus far for the event and to encourage delegates to give their input on the structure and themes of the Conference’s eventual outcome document.

As mandated by General Assembly resolution 63/227, the Conference, scheduled for 9 to 13 May in Istanbul, will aim to comprehensively appraise implementation by the least developed countries and their development partners of the sustainable development and poverty eradication goals of the Brussels Programme of Action, share best practices and lessons learned, as well as identify obstacles and constraints and action needed to overcome them.

Furthermore, the Conference will aim to identify effective global and domestic policies in the light of the appraisal’s outcome, reaffirm the global commitments made at the Millennium Summit and the 2005 World Summit, among other major conferences, as well as mobilize action to achieve those goals.

Cheick Sidi Diarra, Special Adviser on Africa and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, who will serve as the Conference’s Secretary-General, said thus far 32 least developed countries had submitted their national progress reports in all seven areas of the Brussels Programme of Action, which had fed into regional reviews on the subject conducted by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). 

Mr. Diarra pointed to yesterday’s thematic pre-Conference event on food security and agricultural development, among eight others that had taken place.  Seven more were scheduled for next February and March.  Their outcomes would provide substantive input into the Conference’s outcome document.  He said he had also met with Turkish officials throughout 2010 to address the host Government’s role in the preparatory process, as well as the role of parliamentarians, civil society and the private sector, and media coverage.

The United Nations Secretary-General had appointed a Group of Eminent Persons — co-chaired by former President of Mali Alpha Oumar Konaré and former World Bank President James Wolfensohn — to examine the least developed countries’ obstacles to economic progress and recommend a new paradigm for transforming their economies.  The Group would submit its report to the Secretary-General in March 2011.

Mr. Diarra said his Office was working to mobilize involvement in the Conference by parliamentarians and civil society.  It also had set up a private sector steering committee to propose concrete ways to address least developed countries’ specific problems and challenges in investment, enterprise development and finance.  He thanked the Governments of Turkey, India and Finland for contributing to the Office Trust Fund, but said pledges thus far fell short of the total needed to prepare for the Conference and ensure participation by least developed countries’ representatives.  He called on donors to contribute as soon as possible to support logistical and substantive preparations. 

In other business, Jarmo Viinanen of Finland was elected by acclamation as Chair of the Preparatory Committee, following which, he said the Conference would be an opportunity to re-energize support for development in the least developed countries.  The first intergovernmental Preparatory Committee to discuss the Conference outcome would meet in less than one month.  He invited delegations to provide substantive inputs for the outcome document in writing by Wednesday, 5 January, including views on the format, structure and scope of the document, themes and issues to be addressed, practical ways to address them, and concrete proposals for the document’s language.

Mr. Viinanen said he would compile and circulate delegates’ inputs before the first Preparatory Committee meeting.  After two days of debate, the Committee would meet in informal sessions to discuss the main cluster of issues.  By the beginning of February, Mr. Viinanen would submit a zero draft outcome document to be used as the basis for negotiations thereafter.  The second Preparatory Committee would meet from 4 to 8 April.  He reminded delegates to keep in mind Assembly resolution 63/227 when preparing their inputs, and called on stakeholders to engage constructively to achieve a successful outcome. 

Gyan Chandra Acharya ( Nepal) said the Conference would be the only major United Nations event next year solely dedicated to development issues of the 49 least developed countries.  He expressed hope that it would further build on September’s Millennium Development Goals Summit and contribute to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

The Conference, he said, was being held at a time when the global community was grappling with the impact of the financial, food, fuel and climate change crises, which had further accentuated least developed countries’ vulnerabilities.  The Conference should produce an ambitious, comprehensive, forward-looking and results-oriented outcome to spur socio-economic transformation in the next decade in those countries.  That outcome must have robust monitoring and follow up.  

Echoing those concerns, Mohammed Nojibur Rahman ( Bangladesh) said that against the backdrop of the multiple crises, least developed countries had high expectations for the Conference.  The international community should work together to not fail marginalized groups in those countries, notably women and children.

Weighing in on expectations for the Conference, Zeynep Kiziltan ( Turkey) said input from least developed countries was crucial and their views and concerns must be fully reflected in the Conference’s draft programme of action.  United Nations partners’ inputs should be received early and the Organization should conduct a global awareness-raising campaign about least developed countries’ concerns.  She stressed the importance of those countries’ participation at the highest political level, but said that must be complemented by matching attendance from all development partners.

The Conference, asserted Federico Alberto Cuello Camilo (Dominican Republic), should sincerely and honestly address why, in the past decade, the number of least developed countries had increased, their economic indicators had not improved and they continued to face problems accessing international markets and diversifying their own.  He pointed to the particularly difficult situation and recent tragic events in neighbouring Haiti, the only least developed country in the Americas. 

Also during the meeting, the Committee adopted its provisional agenda (document A/CONF.219/IPC/1/Rev.1) and elected its nine Vice-Chairs.  They included Ethiopia and Malawi from the African States; Bangladesh and India from the Asian Group; Hungary and Slovenia from the Eastern European Group; Dominican Republic and Haiti from the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States; and Australia from the Group of Western European and Other States.

It elected Turkey, the host country, and the other four members of the Global Coordinating Bureau of the Group of Least Developed Countries, including Benin, Nepal and Solomon Islands, as ex-officio members of the PrepCom Bureau. 

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on 10 January 2011. 

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For information media • not an official record