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Arab LDCs: Development Challenges and Opportunities

25
May
2021
Location: 
Virtual Meeting
Side event to the First Preparatory Committee meeting of the 5th UN Conference on LDCs
15:15 to 16:45 Beirut time
08:15 to 09:45 New York time

The Istanbul Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) for the decade 2011-2020 (IPoA) is coming to an end. The overarching goal of the IPoA was to overcome the structural challenges faced by the LDCs in order to eradicate poverty and achieve an internationally agreed development Goals. The 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) will take place from 23 to 27 January 2022 in Doha, Qatar. It will be preceded by a comprehensive preparatory process based on national, regional and global reviews of the Istanbul Program of Action.
 
This forthcoming conference is relevant for the work of ESCWA as it will adopt a new Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This new programme is designed to cover the remaining ten years of the Agenda 2030 implementation and is therefore of special importance for both the LDC-ESCWA member States as well as donors of development aid. The Conference is expected to undertake a comprehensive review and appraisal of the implementation of the Istanbul Plan of Action (IPoA) in each LDC, as well as on sub-regional and regional levels. It will be an opportunity to share best practices, lessons learned and discuss constraints and challenges encountered, to plan strategically for the next decade to enable LDCs to graduate from the category and meet the SDG targets, while building on a solid foundation of national ownership and a reinvigorated global partnership for LDCs’ sustainable development. The outcomes of these broad-based reviews will feed into the work of the Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee ('PrepCom').
 
For this purpose and within the framework of the regional trajectory launched by ESCWA since 2020 to assist the Arab least developed countries in preparation for the Fifth United Nations Conference, ESCWA will convene a side meeting on 25 May 2021 for a period of 90 minutes, on the margins of the First Preparatory Committee meeting (PrepCom1) of the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5), which will be held from 24 to 28 May 2021 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York

 
Objectives of the side-meeting
 

This meeting is an opportunity to present the outcomes and recommendations of the regional meeting that ESCWA held with the four official representatives from the least developed countries, namely Yemen, Mauritania, Somalia and Sudan, donors and other regional and international stakeholders in order to:
 
  • First, move towards a common Arab vision through agreed foundational elements of this vision from the recipient and donor countries.
  • This meeting aims to present the priorities raised by the four official representatives from the least developed countries, and to define what is required from development partners (donors and international organizations) towards the least developed countries.
The meeting seeks to discuss the possibility of establishing a close follow-up mechanism during the next decade, finding solutions to financing problems and how to bridge financing gaps and mobilizing resources to serve development projects, not just relief.