Development partners adopted a “get it done” attitude in response to Covid-19. Countries and philanthropies mobilised USD 126 billion, with major vaccine support going to the least developed countries and Africa. But a new OECD report shows that these efforts didn’t reach all their goals. What lessons should partners draw from this crisis to improve preparedness for the next one? Continue reading What we learned from COVID-19
Frontier economies are hard to invest in but hold big potential. With the right approach, DFIs can unlock both growth and profits in these markets. Here are six lessons for policy makers. Continue reading Investing in frontier markets: What DFIs need to know
By Paul Akiwumi, Director, Division for Africa, LDCs and Special Programmes, UNCTAD
In an increasingly complex global economy, knowledge can be a silver bullet. Technology-driven innovation creates new products, tasks, professions, and economic activities. However, for developing countries, capturing the gains of innovation may not be automatic.
Continue reading “Knowledge and innovation are the currency of progress – LDCs cannot afford to lag behind”
By Swati Sharma, independent trade law and policy professional; and Neil Balchin, Economic Adviser, Commonwealth Secretariat, London
Services is the fastest growing segment of international trade. Yet, while service exports from least developed countries (LDCs) grew by 9% in 2021, they still accounted for less than 1% of global services trade.
Recognising the potential for trade in services to create jobs and accelerate development, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) adopted a Waiver in 2011 to support LDC service suppliers.
In addition to non-market access preferences, the Waiver enables developed and developing countries to grant direct-market-access preferences to LDCs that would otherwise be inconsistent with the most-favoured-nation rules of the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services. In response, LDCs collectively identified their export interests under the Waiver. Continue reading How to maximise the benefits of the LDC Services Waiver
By Dominic Rohner, Professor of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne), University of Lausanne, and Research Fellow, the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
From Syria to Libya, Somalia to Yemen, today more than 50 nations are categorised as fragile states. With a number sitting very close to the EU’s borders, it’s impossible to argue that these countries and the difficulties they face exist in a vacuum from the rest of the world.
As conflict, extremism, and poverty increase due to states falling into “failed” or “failing” categories – the ripple effects are not only tragic for the domestic population but also felt way beyond their borders.
It follows that, to help the EU achieve greater integration and assist its institutions bolster fragile neighbours and partner states, we need a greater understanding of what makes some states thrive, while others slide from fragility to outright collapse. Continue reading Nation building successes and failures matter to the EU and OECD
By Ratnakar Adhikari, Executive Director of the Enhanced Integrated Framework Executive Secretariat at the World Trade Organization
Of the 46 least developed countries (LDCs), 16 are at different stages of graduation. And, though graduation offers many opportunities, it also presents its own unique challenges for countries in this category. As such, various international support measures (ISMs) have been put in place, or extended, to ensure smoother transitions and sustained developmental progress in the post-graduation phase.
Two key concerns for LDCs following graduation involve: preferential market access for export, and development assistance, such as concessional financing.
Continue reading “LDC Graduation: Stories of smooth transition”
By Annette Ssemuwemba, Deputy Executive Director of the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) Executive Secretariat at the World Trade Organisation
The dark storm of the coronavirus pandemic came with a silver lining: new ways of providing services and doing business by leveraging e-commerce and other digital opportunities. Video conferencing apps enabled lessons or work to be accessed remotely; mobile apps delivered food, groceries, and medicines at the click of a button.
But silver linings don’t shine bright for all. Gaps in technology, infrastructure and skills, especially in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), highlighted the need to help entrepreneurs grasp the possibilities of digital transformation.
Continue reading “After the pandemic storms, digital trade offers LDCs rays of sunshine”
By Paul Akiwumi, Director, Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programme, UNCTAD and Ratnakar Adhikari, Executive Director, Enhanced Integrated Framework
Over the past two decades, the 46 least developed countries (LDCs) have recorded relatively robust economic growth, averaging an annual rate of 5.7% from 2001 to 2019. However, this growth has not necessarily translated into improved development outcomes: many LDCs are still plagued by poverty, food insecurity and inequality.
Continue reading “It’s time to put productive capacities at the heart of every development strategy”
By Brendan Vickers, Head, International Trade Policy Section; Salamat Ali, Economic Adviser & Trade Economist and Neil Balchin, Economic Adviser, Trade Policy Analysis, The Commonwealth Secretariat, London.
The number of severely food insecure people across the world is estimated to have doubled in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic to 276 million. This number is expected to reach 323 million in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine. Least developed countries (LDCs) are particularly exposed to this crisis within a crisis: data from the Food and Agriculture Organization indicates more than 251 million people in LDCs are severely food insecure.
Continue reading “The expanding threat to food security in least developed countries”
By Dr. Harry Verhoeven, Senior Research Scholar at the Centre on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University
Discussions about climate are, always, discussions about distribution- of costs, benefits and sacrifices. For years now, the grand bargain required to ward off the existential threat of human-induced global warming has been clear. Rich, developed economies need to swiftly and comprehensively decarbonise their energy and industrial systems in ways that both mitigate the intensity of climatic changes and that enable the planet’s poorest societies to follow a cleaner, more equitable growth trajectory. Doing so would generate time, resources and appropriate technologies for those currently marginalised in the global economy to respond more effectively to climatic upheaval. Understood as such, combating climatic changes should also help address those other mega-problems challenging 21st century civilisation: multidimensional poverty; yawning inequalities between and within countries; and the structural exclusion of hundreds of millions of people from access to public goods to which they are ethically and legally entitled.
Continue reading “Collateral damage? The Russia-Ukraine conflict and energy transitions in Least Developed Countries”