The Second United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries was held in 1990 in Paris, the site of the first LDC conference. The Second Conference reviewed the socio-economic progress made in the least developed countries in the 1980s, as well as progress in international support measures during that decade. Drawing on the experience and lessons of the 1980s, the Conference, which was attended by representatives of 150 governments, was able to agree on the strategies and development priorities for those countries and formulated national and international policies and measures for accelerating the development process in the LDCs for the 1990s.

Recognizing that during the 1980s the situation of the LDCs had worsened, the Conference adopted the Paris Programme of Action of the Least Developed Countries for the 1990s, in which priority areas were macroeconomic policy; human resources development; reversing the trend towards environmental degradation and reinforcing action to address disasters; rural development and food production; and the development of a diversified productive sector.

In the Paris Declaration and Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the 1990s, the international community committed itself to urgent and effective action, based on the principle of shared responsibility and strengthened partnership, in order to reverse the deterioration in the socio-economic situation in the least developed countries and to revitalize their growth and development.

The Paris Declaration stated:

We believe that the deterioration in the economic, social and ecological situation of most of the least developed countries during the 1980s is not irreversible. It can be reversed if these countries and all their partners, taking advantage of the new climate of confidence in international relations, combine their efforts in a spirit of genuine solidarity, particularly through new forms of co-operation, so as once again to give the least developed countries the prospect of sustained and sustainable development within the context of growth in the world economy."