Marginalization of 48 Poorest Countries Leading to ‘A Future We Cannot Afford’,

Says United Nations Report, Ahead of Conference on Least Developed Countries

A blue-ribbon report released ahead of the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, to be held in Istanbul, from 9 to 13 May, says that these countries can break out of a decades-long poverty trap, with determined national action and international support.

The report shows upward progress in category after category of economic and human well-being indicators by developed and dynamic developing countries, while least developed country trends are close to flat-lining.

Pointing to the high incidence of conflicts in countries with extreme poverty and weak institutions, The Report of Eminent Persons 2011 says that “increasing marginalization of the LDCs is creating a future that we, as a global community, cannot afford.”

Measures advocated by the panel include adequate, prioritized and better targeted development assistance; duty- and quota-free access for least developed country exports; doubling farm productivity and school enrolment in these countries; and beefing up the developmental and democratic capacities of least developed country Governments.

The panel also promotes an innovative scheme for cooperation with neighbouring countries in six subregions where least developed countries are located, and the linking of least developed countries themselves in geographically oriented self-help groupings.  The 48 least developed countries include 33 in sub-Saharan Africa and outlying islands, 14 in South Asia and Oceania, and one (Haiti) in the Caribbean.

The drive for better global integration by the least developed countries is not starting from a standstill, the report notes.  Since the previous conference ( Brussels, 2001), almost all such countries have experienced strong per capita economic growth, and official development assistance (ODA) has risen sharply.  Also since 2001, the Governments of those countries have progressed in terms of adopting democratic constitutions, increasing women’s role in government, and instituting economic reforms and new legal frameworks.

While dependence on primary commodities remains a problem, the least developed countries’ significant share of the world’s strategic minerals, oil, arable land and eco-resources gives them an inside track on attracting trade and investment and diversifying economies, the report finds.  Economic advances in the broader developing world have paid dividends for the least developed countries in terms of South-South aid, trade and investment.

The Eminent Persons accordingly have taken up a theme that also has emerged from intergovernmental negotiations for the next 10-year plan of action for least developed countries — aiming to graduate half of the current members of the grouping by 2020.  This is considered a bold objective, given that there have been altogether 51 such countries since the category was created by the United Nations in 1970, and only three have graduated since then (Botswana, 1994; Cape Verde, 2007; and Maldives, 2011).

“This is the time for global solidarity to achieve progress even in the poorest countries of the world, which will go a long way in advancing global prosperity and security,” the report says.

The United Nations High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, Cheick Sidi Diarra, will serve as Secretary-General of the upcoming United Nations Conference, to be hosted by the Government of Turkey in May.

The first Preparatory Committee for “UN-LDC IV” met from 10 to 14 January in New York, and elected Ambassador Jarmo Viinanen of Finland as Preparatory Committee Chair.  The second Preparatory Committee meetings are scheduled for 4 to 8 April, also in New York.

The Group of Eminent Persons are:  co-chairs Alpha Oumar Konaré, former President of Mali and former Chairman of the African Union Commission, and James Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank; Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder and chairperson of the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee; Nancy Birdsall, the founding president of the Center for Global Development; Kemal Dervis, vice president and director of Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution, and former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Sir Richard Jolly, Honorary Professor of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex and formerly with UNDP and with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), respectively; Louis A. Kasekende, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Uganda and former executive director at the World Bank; Louis Michel, a member of the European Parliament and formerly the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid; and Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Sumitomo Chemical Company Ltd.

The report is available online at:  http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/ldc/home/conference/pid/12904.

For interview opportunities and more information, please contact Ricardo Dunn of the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, tel.:  1 917 367 6006, e-mail:  dunn@un.org; or, at the United Nations Department of Public Information, Tim Wall, tel.:  1 212 963 5851, e-mail:  wallt@un.org; or Charlotte Scaddan, tel.:  1 917 367 9378, e-mail:  scaddan@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record