The Fifth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC5) 24-28 May 2021

The upcoming Fifth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC5) will take place against a bleak socio-economic backdrop – LDCs saw their economies significantly shrink in 2020, amidst a severe global recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. While advanced countries deployed massive fiscal stimulus to cushion the pandemic’s impact, and are on the verge of successful mass vaccinations, the policy response in LDCs was much more limited, due to tight fiscal constraints. Access to vaccines remains many months, if not years away.

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to not only reverse some progress made during the implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) but also exacerbate persistent challenges in LDCs. Ultimately, this compromises the ability of countries to graduate from the LDC category.

We are at an inflection point. Unless the world takes immediate action to step up support to the most vulnerable countries, there will be another great divergence, with SDG achievements out of reach for most LDCs.

More information: https://www.unido.org/ldc5