In anticipation of the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, a group of leading development experts has released a report analyzing the ability of the world's poorest countries to escape poverty in the next decade.
Around the world, 48 countries are categorized as least developed by the United Nations. This designation quantifies the quality of life in an impoverished country, defining it as a place where the gross national income (GNI) per capita is under $905. To move out of this designation, nations have to reach a minimum of $1,086 GNI per capita.
The experts, known collectively as the Eminent Persons Group, have concluded that half of the least developed countries could "graduate" from poverty by 2021 with the help of specific policies outlined in the report.
The Group of Eminent Persons suggests that the economic and social growth necessary to break out of poverty can best be achieved through doubling access to education, implementing duty-free and quota-free trade policies for exports, and increasing agricultural productivity by double. Finally, they suggest targeting international aid to support the individual nation's government in their endeavors to meet these goals.
According to the UN News Centre,
Issued ahead of the a conference on LDCs to be held in Istanbul from 9 to 13 May, which will seek to promote a 10-year programme for food security, decent work, disaster risk reduction, climate resilience and clean energy growth in the LDCs, The Report of Eminent Persons 2011 stresses that these countries can break out of a decades-long poverty trap, depending on determined national action and international support.
Not only does the report show that countries are able to break out of poverty, it also suggests targeted policies that would best facilitate the graduation of more than 20 countries by 2020. These suggestions will undoubtedly influence the strategic Programme of Action (PoA) produced by global leaders at the upcoming conference.
At a recent General Assembly meeting, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated the importance of a concrete plan:
"We need a programme of action for the next decade that emphasizes sustained and inclusive economic growth, improved productive capacity and a structural transformation that will generate jobs, especially for the vast and growing population of young people," he said.
Read the full report.