Least Developed Countries

Productive transformation must be inclusive and sustainable to build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic and avoid a “lost decade” of development.

The funding will make the conference more inclusive and enhance the ownership and practical value of the negotiated UNCTAD15 outcome.

Without better state capacity – ability to accomplish policy goals – the world’s poorest countries will remain on the margins of the global economy.

By Paul Akiwumi, Director for Africa and Least Developed Countries, UNCTAD

Foreign direct investment remains stable in least developed countries, but contracts severely in landlocked developing nations and small island developing states.

COVID-19 has heightened the need to boost productive capacities for socioeconomic recovery in the world’s poorest nations.

The European Union has approved additional funds for a project supporting the African nation’s quest to diversify exports and reduce its dependency on oil for economic growth.

By Perks Master Ligoya, Ambassador of Malawi, and Paul Akiwumi, Director for Africa and Least Developed Countries, UNCTAD

Despite setbacks due to repeated natural disasters, the island nation has enjoyed steady economic growth since the mid-2000s.

The COVID-19 economic crisis is forecast to reverse years of painstaking development progress in education and nutrition, and to pull 32 million people back into extreme poverty.