By Meletus EZE
UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, on Wednesday launched a resource to assist governments of the world’s most disadvantaged countries in boosting prosperity and meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said the resource synthesises nearly 15 years of research and policy options in a single resource that links potential development objectives with concrete steps and practical actions to achieve specific targets of the global goals.
“UNCTAD is, as it always has been, in the forefront of crafting vital policy options needed for the structural transformation of the world’s poorest and most fragile economies,” said Mohammed at a news conference.
“There are currently 47 least developed countries (LDCs), which are home to just over one billion people, or about 13 per cent of the world’s population. Yet they account for only 1.2 per cent of global GDP.
“`Without concrete proposals to bring about this transformation, the development prospects of millions of people remains in jeopardy,” said Mohammed.
While LDCs have many challenges in common, UNCTAD underlines that there is no single recipe for success, with governments needing to take a pragmatic approach that involves a combination of policy measures tailored to national conditions.
Almost half of the population of LDCs still lives in extreme poverty. At the same time, LDCs have the world’s fastest population growth rate.
The basic causes of persistent and widespread poverty in LDCs are low productivity and high levels of unemployment and underemployment.
