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Addressing Inequality Key to Tackling Poverty in Least Developed Countries

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 24 2014 (IPS) - Economic growth combined with equity is key to helping Least Developed Countries (LDCs) address poverty, Gyan Chandra Acharya, United Nations High Representative for the Least Developed Countries (LDC), Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) told reporters last week.

Speaking after the briefing, Acharya told IPS that inequality is becoming a serious challenge for LDCs, “while economic growth is very important, inclusive economic growth is really critical, even for the LDCs” he said.

Economic inequality in LDCs was exacerbated because their economic growth was often over-concentrated in only one sector, such as minerals or hydrocarbons, Acharya said.

It is therefore important for LDCs to diversify their economy, and engage in other structural economic changes to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are spread to the widest percentage of the population, Acharya said.

Acharya, speaking at the launch of the 2014 State of the Least Developed Countries Report, also noted that it was important that the international community didn’t limit their assistance to the LDCs to just aid.

He said that other countries should also consider the importance of investment, trade and technology transfer as ways to assist the LDCs to grow their economies.

Addressing inequality before least developed countries graduate to middle income status is also increasingly important as it is now known that as many as three-quarters of the world’s poor live in middle income countries.

An Institute of Development Studies report ‘Global Poverty and the New Bottom Billion’ found that although “previously, poverty was viewed as an low income country issue predominantly; nowadays such simplistic assumptions/ classifications are misleading because some large countries that graduated into the middle income country category still have large numbers of poor people.”

 
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