Over 7,000 participants, including Heads of State and government, IGOs, and NGOs gathered in Istanbul (Turkey) for the 4th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC IV) from 9-13 May.
As the meeting came to a close, participants adopted the Istanbul Political Declaration and Programme of Action for the LDCs. In the Declaration, which serves as preamble to the Programme of Action, governments commit to further strengthen their support to the poorest countries by “creating a favorable environment for sustainable development, increasing productive capacities, diversification of economies and building the necessary infrastructure.”
The Programme covers 27 priority areas, including: infrastructure building; energy access; disaster risk reduction (DRR); human capital enhancement through health measures; and the empowerment of women and youth. Specifically, the Action Plan calls on countries to build their human capacities by: fostering sustained, equitable and inclusive human and social development; increasing gender equality and the empowerment of women; reducing the vulnerability of LDCs to economic, natural and environmental shocks and disasters, as well as climate change; and enhancing their ability to meet these and other challenges through strengthening their resilience. Under the Programme of Action, developed countries agree to support national disaster reduction and mitigation programmes in LDCs, and to facilitate South-South transfer of lessons learned on disaster preparedness.
The Action Plan commits governments to enable half the number of LDCs to meet the criteria for graduation by 2020. Forty-eight countries are classified as LDCs, 33 of which are in Africa, 14 in the Asia-Pacific region, and one in Latin America and the Caribbean.
No comments:
Post a Comment