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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.

A Special Session of the UN General Assembly is to be held sometime in 2006 to conduct a comprehensive mid-term review of the Programme of Action to be adopted later today.
Towards the end of the decade, the General Assembly will consider holding a Fourth UN Conference on LDCs to review the successes and failures of the present conference -- and decide on subsequent action.
Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury of Bangladesh, UN Coordinator for LDCs, held out a yardstick to help measure the success of the Brussels conference.
"When we meet at the next conference, the ultimate test would be to see fewer LDCs," he told TERRAVIVA last night.
Since 1971, the number of LDCs has almost doubled, from 25 to 49 last month.
If by the next conference, the number rises to over 55 or 60, all of the efforts in Brussels may be deemed a failure.
According to the Committee for Development Policy, which sits in judgement over LDCs, two new African countries have already qualified to join the ranks of LDCs: Republic of Congo and Ghana.
Meanwhile, at the time of going to press, several contentious issues were still under negotiation. The discussions were expected to continue into an all-night session.
A spokesman for the Group of 77 developing countries would only say that "there were no dramatic successes or dramatic failures".
Chowdhury characterised the outcome of the conference as being "positive".
The number of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) is to be expanded to include more debt-ridden nations. These countries will also have most of their bilateral and multilateral debts written off.
"We believe that the full financing and implementation of the enhanced HIPC initiative is essential for freeing domestic budgetary resources for poverty reduction," says the political declaration that is to be adopted later today.
Donor countries providing more than 0.20 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) as official development assistance (ODA) have pledged to continue to do so and increase their efforts.
Other donors who have met the 0.15 per cent target will undertake to reach 0.20 per cent "expeditiously".
Denmark and Norway have already pledged to increase their ODA to LDCs, to 1.0 per cent of their GNP.
The donors also decided to implement an OECD decision to untie aid to LDCs which will significantly increase the value of public development aid.
"This is a very important decision," Conference spokesperson Habib Ouane said, "because it involves about 2 billion dollars annually."
The beneficiary LDCs will now have the choice of buying equipment and services from the cheapest source -- and not be forced to buy them from countries doling out aid.
As part of a follow-up process, it was also decided to ask Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish -- "immediately after the conference" -- a new Office of High Representative for Least Developed, Land-locked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.
The only slow movement last night was on market access -- over and above what the European Union has offered in its "Everything But Arms"(EBA) initiative.