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West Pledges to Help Poorest of Poor
By Thalif Deen
BRUSSELS, May 20 (IPS) - The United Nations Sunday unanimously adopted a wide-ranging programme of action to help the world's 49 least developed countries (LDCs), described as the poorest of the poor.

Will The Number of the World's Poorest Nations Shrink?
By Ramesh Jaura
BRUSSELS, May 20 (IPS) - European Commissioner for Development Cooperation Poul Nielson expects in the coming years a reduction in the number of least developed countries (LDCs), which has almost doubled to 49 in the last three decades.

Quicker Debt Relief for Conflict-Affected Countries Pledged
By Brian Kenety
BRUSSELS, May 20 (IPS) - The international community has agreed to seek a moratorium on debt service payments for the world's most highly- indebted countries in "exceptional" situations - such as those plagued by civil wars, floods and natural disasters - and to facilitate access to debt relief for post-conflict countries.

The South needs to invest in digital and concrete highways
By Ramesh Jaura
Regional cooperation involving the poorest countries can provide a significant contribution to infrastructure development in the LDCs, according to representatives of multilateral organisations and government officials from around the world.

NGOs Do Some Soul-Searching to Improve Watchdog Role
Brian Kenety
With the clock fast running out on the LDC-III conference, a number of participants in the NGO Forum yesterday afternoon questioned the effectiveness of their own organisation in informing its members on the progress of official deliberations, which could impact on the effectiveness of their response.

Till we meet again...
Another LDC Conference in Another Decade
By Thalif Deen
The Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs) will wind up this evening in customary UN tradition: a pledge to meet again in another venue, another time, another decade.

Agreement on Debt Servicing Close
By Ranjit Devraj
Nepal's Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat has had a busy time at the LDC-III, his country being one of its vice-presidents. On the penultimate day of the conference he spoke to IPS with some trepidation as to a final outcome that would overwhelmingly be in favour of the LDCs. But he was hopeful of a moratorium on debt servicing.

Easy guide to the LDC Conference

Forget Bananas, Music Can Hit the Right Note
By Lewis Machipisa
With the right development strategies in place, Haiti's dread-locked Wycliff Jean, Senegal's Youssou N'Dour, Mali's vastly talented Salif Keita and Benin's voodoo queen Angelique Kidjo, could easily sing some of the developing countries poverty blues way.

Déjà vu All Over Again
By Néfer Muñoz
The mainly female participants at The Women's Entrepreneurs' Forum must have felt a sense of déjà vu. They were in the middle of an animated discussion and information sharing session yesterday when the translators packed up their things and left.

Germany Expects Reduction in Number of LDCs
By Ramesh Jaura
The Prof. Dr. Michael Bohnet, Director-General Development Policy at the German Federal Ministry of Development and Economic Cooperation speaks to TERRAVIVA

Trading Places: EU Aid Chief Grilled
By Brian Kenety and Greta Hopkins
It was Poul Nielson's turn to take the hot seat. The EU, host to this week's LDC-III conference, had pledged to involve civil society in the deliberations and engage them in debate.

Just Trade All Your Troubles Away
By Ferial Haffajee
The key message to the 49 poorest nations from this third UN meeting is that they can trade themselves out of trouble. Private sector solutions dominate: market access, enterprise development and commodity development.

Round-The-Clock Horse Trading Begins
By Thalif Deen
With less than 48 hours before the curtain comes down late Sunday, delegates began round-the-clock negotiations to finalise the Programme of Action which will spell out commitments -- some concrete, some deliberately vague -- on several politically and economically sensitive issues, ranging from debt cancellations to an increase in development aid.

Will the LDCs bite Moore's bait?
By Ranjit Devraj
A cartoon that appeared in a developing country newspaper has a cherubic-looking, halo-wearing, Mike Moore asking: ''By the way did I mention that WTO is launching a new Uruguay round this year?'' At the present conference Moore has been careful to make the right noises and assure the LDCs and developing countries that he understood their concerns and tell them that ''we are working hard on implementation-related and other issues in Geneva''.

Wieczorek-Zeul Favours More South-South Cooperation
By Ramesh Jaura
Germany's Development and Economic Cooperation Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul has called for a greater regional cooperation and a larger exchange of goods among developing countries. This was as important as the need for removing trade barriers for the goods of developing countries to the markets of the industrialised nations, she said in an interview with TERRAVIVA.

The United Nations' Own Maradona
By Néfer Muñoz
Remigio Martín Maradona, cousin of Argentine football superstar Diego Armando Maradona, overcame poverty and physical disability and today is a United Nations official promoting a global culture of peace and raising funds for programmes in developing countries.

When the Rules Don't Work for You
Tanzania's Minister of Industry and Trade Iddi Simba talks to TERRAVIVA about his country's struggle as an LDC.
By Lewis Machipisa

LDC, HIPC definitions 'Inappropriate, arbitrary and conservative' - Eurodad
By Brian Kenety
The debt sustainability indicators that are being used by creditors with regard to the LDC and HIPC countries are "inappropriate, arbitrary and conservative", argues the European Network on Debt and Development in a paper to be presented in an NGO Forum workshop today.

Africa Is Not In Flames
By Thalif Deen
At a closed-door ministerial meeting of LDCs yesterday, one African ambassador was critical of the "lopsided" coverage of the conference by the mainstream Western news media.

Beauty Fights the AIDS Beast
By Ferial Haffajee
Twenty-one year old Mpule Kwelagobe is a refreshingly empowering figure in the fight against AIDS in Africa

The Eighth Plague is Crushing Africa
Ferial Haffajee
It's hard not to get biblical about AIDS, to see it as a plague visited on a planet that has angered the gods. It's hard not to get biblical, especially in Africa - the disease's epicentre, where 3,800 people are infected daily with the virus that causes death, especially in the poor world

Despite Obstacles, Programme Of Action Will Be Ready
The two Working Groups entrusted with the task of finalising the LDC Programme of Action have made very slow progress

Myanmar Delegation Escapes Arrest Warrant
By Thalif Deen
A behind-the-scenes attempt to obtain a magistrate's warrant to arrest the head of the Myanmar (Burma) delegation to the LDC conference failed at the eleventh hour due to a "technical hitch"

UNCTAD Project to Steer LDCs Through International Disputes
Ramesh Jaura
International Lawyers for Multilateral Trade Cooperation - ILMTC - is the name of a project that is being launched by the UNCTAD to steer the developing countries and LDCs among them through an increasingly rule-oriented global environment

One Billion More to Get Access to Energy By 2015
By Ramesh Jaura
Government ministers, UN organisations and industry officials have set a new goal for the international community: to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to energy by the year 2015

Not Trade or Aid, but Trade Through Aid
By Ranjit Devraj
Economist Charles Gore sums up best the situation that LDCs seeking investment from large global trading companies find themselves in when it comes to commodity exports - those who can invest won't and those who would invest can't

World Trade University on Its Way
By Néfer Muñoz
A United Nations-appointed agency has announced the creation of a World Trade University, an institution that will have 15 campuses around the world and will provide a unique educational opportunity for trade specialists from poor countries

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