New report on the “State of the Least Developed Countries”
The United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) has released its report "State of the Least Developed Countries, 2018". The...
General Assembly Resolution on LDCs
In December 2018 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 73/242 on the "Follow-up to the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries". The resolution calls for further action in support of the development...
Energy access and main challenges in the LDCs
The LDCs have a long way to go to achieve universal access to modern energy by 2030. Sustainable energy, encompassing its three dimensions of access, efficiency, and renewable energy, is a key development enabler...
Least developed countries steal the spotlight
The statement came at noon on 15th March 2018. The Committee for Development Policy (CDP) had just finished its deliberations on the triennial review of the list of least developed countries (LDCs). Four countries...
The 2018 triennial review of the LDC category
The Committee for Development Policy (CDP) held its 20th Plenary session from 12 to 16 March 2018 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. As part of the Plenary session, the CDP conducted...
Support for LDCs with extreme vulnerability – assisting Tuvalu
Tuvalu was identified as eligible for graduation from the list of LDCs in 2012, based on its high levels of per capita income and human assets. The country has been recommended for graduation although...
Rethinking support measures for the least developed countries
Daniel Gay, Inter-Regional Adviser on LDCs
Committee for Development Policy Secretariat
Part I, below, discusses critically the theoretical background behind the existing international support measures for LDCs and asks how things have gone so far. Part...
“Impact Assessments”: What happens when a country graduates from the LDC category?
When a country graduates from the LDC category, it no longer benefits from LDC-specific international support measures. The practical implications and significance of that change depend on numerous factors, and thus differ among countries....
Supporting growth in LDCs requires both financial resources and progress towards addressing institutional deficiencies...
The last decade has been punctuated by a series of broad-based economic crises and negative shocks, starting with the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, followed by the European sovereign debt crisis of 2010–2012 and...
Productive capacity in LDCs
The Committee for Development Policy (CDP) has published a policy note on Expanding Productive Capacity: Lessons Learned from Graduating Least Developed Countries. The Policy Note analyzes the strategies and policy choices on productive capacity of 14 countries that...
A landlocked LDC’s approach to the global market: Bhutan’s IT service park
Business at Thimphu Tech Park has been blooming in the last couple of years. “We struggled to attract businesses for the first few years. There were only two people sitting in this four-story building...
Progress in LDCs hinges on access to modern energy
A recent study by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), “The Least Developed Countries Report 2017: Transformational Energy Access”, reports that expanding access to adequate, reliable and affordable sources of modern energy...
