Half the world's least developed countries can escape poverty in 10 years - UN

[News_Editor]

Half the world's least developed countries can escape poverty in 10 years - UN

2011-03-30 05:50:45 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- A United Nations (UN) report on Tuesday said half the world's 48 least developed countries (LDCs) could escape poverty within 10 years if they benefit from appropriate measures.

Withprioritized and better targeted development assistance; duty- and quota-free access for LDC exports; doubling farm productivity and school enrolment; and beefing up the developmental and democratic capacities of LDC governments, the LDCs could 'graduate' from their impoverished status, the report added.

Since the UN created the status in 1970, there have been 51 LDCs and only three have graduated since then – Botswana in 1994, Cape Verde in 2007, and Maldives earlier this year.

"This is the time for global solidarity to achieve progress even in the poorest countries of the world, which will go a long way in advancing global prosperity and security," said the report by the Group of Eminent Persons appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to look into development problems facing the world’s poorest countries.

The Report of Eminent Persons 2011 underlined that these countries can break out of a decades-long poverty trap, depending on determined national action and international support, taking up the theme that has emerged from intergovernmental negotiations for the next 10-year LDC plan of action aiming to graduate half of the current members of the grouping by 2020.

The report shows upward progress in category after category of economic and human well-being indicators by developed and dynamic developing countries, while LDC trends are close to flat-lining.

Pointing to the high incidence of conflicts in countries with extreme poverty and weak institutions, it says "increasing marginalization of the LDCs is creating a future that we, as a global community, cannot afford."

The Panel promotes an innovative scheme for cooperation with neighboring countries in six sub-regions where LDCs are located, and links the LDCs themselves in geographically oriented self-help groupings. They include 33 in sub-Saharan Africa and outlying islands, 14 in South Asia and Oceania, and one (Haiti) in the Caribbean.

From May 9 to 13, Istanbul, Turkey will be hosting the LDCs conference, which will seek to promote a 10-year program for food security, decent work, disaster risk reduction, climate resilience and clean energy growth in the LDCs.

The drive for better global integration by the least developed countries is not starting from a standstill, the report notes. Since the previous LDC conference in Brussels in 2001, almost all have experienced strong per capita economic growth, and official development assistance (ODA) has risen sharply.

Also since 2001, LDC governments have progressed in terms of adopting democratic constitutions, increasing women's role in government, and instituting economic reforms and new legal frameworks.

While dependence on primary commodities remains a problem, the LDCs' significant share of the world's strategic minerals, oil, arable land and eco-resources gives them an inside track on attracting trade and investment and diversifying economies, the study said.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-03-30