Doha to host 5th UN Conference on LDCs

Qatar will be hosting the 5th United Nations (UN) Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5), from January 23 to 27, 2022, bringing together heads of states and government officials in Doha. As the Istanbul Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries (IPoA) draws to a close in 2020, the LDC5 will take place at the highest possible level, according to information on the UN website. The expected outcome of LDC5, a new 10-year programme of action for the LDCs, will be adopted at a critical time, falling within the last 10 years of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals across the LDCs. LDCs, according to UN, “are in a race to deliver global development goals by 2030.” At the conference, the international community is expected to: 1. Undertake a comprehensive appraisal of the implementation of the IPoA; 2. Mobilise additional international support measures and action in favour of LDCs; and 3. Agree on a renewed partnership between LDCs and their development partners to overcome structural challenges, eradicate poverty, achieve internationally agreed development goals, and enable graduation from the LDC category. Since 1971, the UN has recognised the LDCs as the “poorest and weakest segment” of the international community. It comprised of the following countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Tanzania, Yemen, and Zambia. The Office of the High Representative for LDC, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS) is the UN’s focal point for LDC5 Conference preparations. High Representative Courtenay Rattray will be the secretary-general of the conference. OHRLLS and the LDC Group thanked Qatar, Turkey and Finland for their “generous support to LDC5 preparations and welcome the contribution of all stakeholders for the success of the conference.” According to UN, the “LDCs host about 40% of world’s poor and many are suffering conflict or emerging from one. LDCs account for 13% of the world population but only about 1.3% of global GDP and less than 1% of global trade and FDI. Even if on the rise, still barely a fifth of the population in LDCs has access to the internet." “The low level of socio-economic development in LDCs is characterised by historically weak development capacity, low and unequally distributed income and scarcity of domestic financial resources. “LDCs typically rely on agrarian economies which subsequently can be affected by a vicious cycle of low productivity and low investment, especially as wealthier countries develop and utilise more productive farming technologies. “Generally, LDCs rely on few primary commodities as major sources of exports and fiscal earnings, causing them to be vulnerable to external terms-of-trade shocks. Some LDCs have been able to diversify into the manufacturing sector though often remain limited to products in labour-intensive industries, such as textiles and apparel. “These development constraints are responsible for insufficient domestic resource mobilisation, low economic management capacity, weaknesses in programme design and implementation, chronic external deficits, high debt burdens and heavy dependence on external financing in LDCs.”