Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States - Economic Aftershocks

The Road to the 5th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5)

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 17:21:00 +0000

Wednesday, 21 October 2020 - 9:00am to Friday, 23 October 2020 - 10:30pm

As preparations get underway for the 5th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5), OHRLLS is co-organising a high-level event to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on development in the LDCs.

The event was co-organised with the OECD Development Centre and the Foundation for studies and Research on International Development (FERDI). The summary of the event can be found here.

Aimed at tackling vulnerabilities and leveraging scarce resources to help LDCs in their recovery from COVID-19, the event was split into two sessions on October 21 and 23.

Speakers included:

Ángel GURRÍA, Secretary-General, Organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD)
Right Honorable Patricia SCOTLAND, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth
Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘UTOIKAMANU, UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States
Ambassador Perks LIGOYA, Permanent Representative of Malawi to the UN in NY and Chair of the LDC group

The agenda is here.

First session: 21 October 2020, 09:00 – 10:30 (EST)

What does COVID-19 mean for LDC’s vulnerabilities and support measures?

The COVID-19 crisis is rolling back years of development progress. It urges us to rethink the economic vulnerability of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and of developing countries more generally. Vulnerability, one of the main criteria for including countries into the LDC list, has been measured by the economic and environmental vulnerability index (EVI), which captures the country’ structural vulnerability to economic and environmental shocks. However, growing concerns on exposure to international shocks, and the compounding of several risks, make it necessary to rethink how we measure vulnerabilities and how we help the LDCs address them. The first panel will take stock of this debate to inform the preparations of the Fifth UN Conference on the LDCs (LDC5), to be held in Doha, Qatar in January 2022.

To register for this session click here.

Second session: 23 October 2020, 09:00 – 10:30 (EST)

Financing the recovery in LDCs: what role for international co-operation?

In his latest report on the implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA), which came out at the very outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Secretary-General had already stressed the uneven progress of LDCs, and the need to better support them beyond graduation point. Declining foreign direct investment, persistently low shares in world exports, slow gains in structural transformation and productive capacity, continued dependence on commodities and a worsening of undernourishment in the LDCs were all matters of concern on the eve of the major 2020 global economic crisis. This second panel will discuss options for improving the mobilisation of global finance, its alignment with, and its impact on the recovery and sustainable development of LDCs.

To register for this session click here.

NEWS

Tackling Vulnerability on the Road to LDC5

The event was co-organised by UNOHRLLS, FERDI and OECD Development Centre will take place in the framework of the LDC IV Monitor, a consortium which also includes the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD, Bangladesh), in collaboration with the Southern Voice network of think tanks, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), The Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) and the 51�Թ� University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER).

tags:

Least Developed Countries

OECD Development Centre

FERDI

Istanbul Programme of Action

Vulnerability

Economic Aftershocks

Structural Economic Transformation

Categories:

Events

LDCs

Least Developed Countries Appeal for “Global Stimulus Package” to Combat COVID-19 and its Economic Aftershocks

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 20:52:00 +0000

uni319835_1.jpg

A boy studies at home due to COVID-19, listening to his lessons on the radio every day in Rwanda

OCHA

NEW YORK 28 April 2020 – At a briefing today coordinated by UN-OHRLLS, ambassadors from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) presented an urgent "global stimulus package for LDCs" to the Deputy Secretary-General of the 51�Թ�, Ms Amina Mohammed.

The meeting heard that COVID-19 is unfolding in LDCs and that confirmed numbers are likely to be the tip of the iceberg as most of the LDCs have insufficient testing capacity.

What is already happening on the ground, according to ambassadors, is that the LDCs are suffering severe consequences of the pandemic beyond health. The price of commodities, exports, investment, remittances and tourism have all collapsed, and all will have long-term ripple effects.

The looming global recession will hit the LDCs hard with disproportionate consequences.

The 51�Թ� does not consider COVID-19 just a health crisis, the DSG said. It is a human crisis that has exposed so many weaknesses across the world. It has exposed vulnerabilities, and reminded us that while our economies are on pause, issues that negatively affect LDCs most, like poverty and climate change, are not.

To respond to such a mammoth intersected crisis, ambassadors informed the DSG that already announced support and assistance are not sufficient for LDCs. They requested significantly scaled up international support, alongside stronger domestic measures.

The appropriate response to this, “a global stimulus package for LDCs” needs to be funded and implemented with immediate effect, they said.

The full details of the package can be found here and includes the following immediate-term requests:

Emergency public health package for LDCs: including personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing kits; ventilators; medical doctors and nurses to LDCs upon request to train and treat; and the lifting of all tariffs and non-tariff restrictions on the import of medical equipment by LDCs.
Support for social protection systems: an immediate allocation of $5.2 billion emergency assistance as direct budgetary support to Governments emergency assistance in the form of cash or food to at least 350 million poor people in LDCs for a period of 12 months.
Education support for students: the provision of digital equipment, including low-cost laptops or other devices, to support the millions of LDC students forced to stay away from education, including 111 million girls.
Provide 0.15 per cent of ODA to LDCs: at least 0.15 per cent of the GNI of Development Partner countries to be given to LDCs this year, which is the lower bound of their pledges.
Full debt cancellation: debt relief for all LDCs with immediate effect, to include rivate and commercial debt.
Lifting trade barriers and scaling up aid for trade: complete elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers by our partners on health-related products for LDCs.
Additional allocation including increased SDR allocation for LDCs: increased resources for LDCs from Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, the Rapid Financing Instrument and the Rapid Credit Facility as well as other multilateral windows.
Protect migrants of LDCs and promote their remittances for host countries of migrant workers to extend the same social protection and safety net measures as provided to their nationals, and to waive transaction fees of remittances of LDC nationals until the pandemic is completely over.

LDC ambassadors also called for medium-to-long-term measures, including adequate, affordable and rapid supply of vaccines/immunization and antiviral drugs related to COVID-19, when they are developed.

They also said that the quality, availability and affordability of internet and other online related facilities must be enhanced, especially in rural areas of LDCs.

To read the full stimulus document, see here.

Photo: A boy studies at home due to coronavirus-related school closures, listening to his lessons on the radio every day in Rwanda. OCHA

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