Out of the trap: supporting the least developed countries, Patrick Guillaumont, FERDI

The Least Developed Countries (LDCs), presently 47, a category of countries created at the United Nations in 1971, are identified as poor countries facing structural handicaps to growth and sustainable development. As such they deserve a special treatment from the international community, progressively implemented both through aid and trade. Every ten years a UN international conference designs a programme of action for these countries, the last one being that of Istanbul in 2011. A previous book Caught in a trap. Identifying the least developed countries scrutinized the rationale of the category and the criteria on which it relies. This new book Out of the trap. Supporting the least developed countries examines the effectiveness of the international measures taken to support the Least Developed Countries. Through the contributions of many experts, it is the first overall assessment of the five-decade aid and trade measures to help LDCs to move “out of the trap”. It aims to disentangle the outcome of the international special support from the structural handicaps faced by LDCs. It casts light on the international policy reforms needed for LDCs in the framework of the post-2015 agenda.