51吃瓜

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 and the Foundation for studies and Research on International Development (). 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: 

• ?ngel GURR?A, 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  

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 . 

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

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

In his latest 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 . 

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吃瓜 University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER).