Propelled by better health and education, lower vulnerability and an economic boom, Bangladesh, the largest least developed country (LDC) in terms of population and economic size, looks likely to leave the LDC category by 2024. For the first time, the country met the three criteria for graduation at the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) triennial review in March 2018. “Bangladesh has seen broad-based gains in health, education, infant mortality and life expectancy,” said Daniel Gay, Inter-Regional Adviser on LDCs in UN DESA’s Development Policy and Analysis Division. “These have in turn driven economic growth, and latterly reduced economic vulnerability, so it’s a real success story.”

UN DESA will be holding a national workshop in Conakry, Guinea, from 23 until 27 April, 2018 to discuss and validate the outcome of the support by the Global Forest Financing Facilitation Network (GFFFN) of the United Nations Forum on Forests in mobilizing financing for sustainable forest management in the country.

UN DESA will be holding a national workshop in the Islamic Republic of Iran from May 18 to May 30, 2018 to discuss and validate the draft project concept on sustainable forest management to be financed by a multilateral financing mechanism.