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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.

The Third UN Conference on LDCs, held at the European Parliament in Brussels, wrapped up its weeklong sessions with new commitments by Western donors to increase development aid and a pledge to write off most of the bilateral and multilateral debts.

"The Programme of Action is positive, forward-looking and LDC- sensitive," Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury of Bangladesh, UN Coordinator of LDCs, told IPS.

Chowdhury, however, held out a yardstick to help measure the success of the Brussels conference. "When we meet at the next conference 10 years from now, the ultimate test would be to see fewer LDCs," he said.

Since 1971, the number of LDCs has virtually 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 UN 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.

The LDCs range from Afghanistan and Bangladesh to Yemen and Zambia. Of the 49, 34 are from Africa, nine from Asia, five from the Pacific and one from the Caribbean. Only one country, Botswana, has graduated from the ranks of LDCs.

Under the Programme of Action, the number of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)is to be expanded to include more debt-ridden LDCs. Of the 41 categorised as HIPCs, 31 are LDCs. 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 a political declaration that was adopted by consensus Sunday.

According to the Programme of Action, donor countries providing more than 0.20 percent of their gross national product (GNP) as official development assistance (ODA) to LDCs have pledged to continue to do so and increase their efforts.

Other donors who have met the 0.15 percent target will undertake to reach 0.20 percent "expeditiously". Denmark and Norway have already pledged to increase their ODA to LDCs, to 1.0 percent of their GNP.

The donors also decided to implement a decision taken in May by the rich nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to untie aid to LDCs.

This is expected to 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 past two UN conferences on LDCs held in Paris - the first in 1981 and the second in 1990 - were characterised by "grand commitments" and a slew of promises to help the poorest nations to rejuvenate their cash- strapped economies.

But these commitments, Chowdhury said, lacked political will for worldwide implementation. "These were the causes for the failure of the last two conferences," he noted.

According to the United Nations, more than half of the 630 million people in LDCs live on less than a dollar a day. Forty-three percent have no access to safe drinking water and 50 percent are illiterate.

Additionally, the average life expectancy in the 49 LDCs is only 51 years compared with 78 years in industrial nations. Of the world's 30 countries with the highest HIV/AIDs infection rate, 16 are LDCs in sub- Saharan Africa, two from Asia and one from the Caribbean.

According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the average per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in LDCs was 235 dollars in 1997 compared with 24,522 dollars in developed countries.

Since 1990, financial flows to LDCs have declined by 39 percent in real per capita terms while official development assistance (ODA) is down 45 percent. ODA flows declined to 12 billion dollars in 1999 compared with 17 billion dollars in 1990.

The Brussels conference wound up 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.

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. (END/IPS)