The Fourth UN Conference on LDCs, held in Istanbul in May 2011, adopted the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011-2020. The overarching goal of the Programme of Action is to overcome the structural challenges faced by the LDCs in order to eradicate poverty, achieve internationally agreed development goals and enable graduation from the least developed country category. The Programme of Action also sets an ambitious goal of enabling half the number of LDCs to meet the criteria for graduation by 2020.
As a follow up to the Fourth UN Conference on LDCs, the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) will review the existing smooth transition mechanisms as specified in General Assembly resolution 59/209 (Annex 1) to identify how they can be further strengthened or improved and better monitored.
The work by the Committee will also feed into the recent General Assembly Resolution on implementing the smooth transition strategies for countries graduating from the list of LDCs, in which the GA urges the Committee to pay particular attention to the effectiveness of smooth transition for graduated countries and to report thereon to the Economic and Social Council at its substantive session. In addition to the resolutions directly addressing the CDP, the work of the Committee in this area may also feed into the other intergovernmental process related to smooth transition recently initiated by the General Assembly (see Annex 2).
The purpose of this report is to provide a background to the current experience with smooth transition from the LDC category, to present preliminary recommendations on how to improve the smooth transition process of LDCs from the category, and to reflect on how to facilitate the gradual phasing out of LDC-specific international support measures.
Section 2 of the report gives a brief overview of the existing smooth transition framework and the experiences from recently graduated and graduating countries.
Section 3 suggests areas where processes could be strengthened so as to facilitate graduation from the LDC category.
Section 4 identifies LDC-specific support measures requiring continued attention from development partners and suggestions for improved procedures for phasing out their support.
Section 5 concludes.
- This report has been prepared by the Secretariat of the Committee for Development Policy as an input to the Committee’s discussions on this subject at its next plenary meeting during 12-16 March 2012. As such, it does not necessarily reflect the views of the Committee. Recommendations by the Committee will be included in its annual report to the Economic and Social Council.
