Expert meeting of the "LDC IV Monitor" group, organized by the Commonwealth

The LDC IV Monitor Group, as part of the Commonwealth Commission on LDC Trade Related Issues, held an expert group meeting on 29 January 2020, in London. The purpose of the meeting was to critically reflect on the past actions and state of play of the Istanbul Plan of Action (IPOA) 2011 to 2020 and to discuss future actions and the way forward for the forthcoming 2021 – 2030 LDC Plan of Action.

The main objectives of the meeting were to: 

• Benchmark the role and organisational structure of the LDC IV Monitor Group
• Revisit the landscape for which the LDC V will take place, with an understanding of how “new realities, new challenges” will impact the next Plan of Action (2021-2030); 
• Understand how to best serve the course of LDC participation by pairing knowledge and analytical outputs with political and policy engagement.

This session focused on the action plan and way forward for the group. Presentations were given by Matthias Bruckner, CDP and Patrick Guillaumont, President, FERDI.

The comments by Patrick Guillaumont highlighted three points. 

• The context of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, as they refer to climate change and conflict and security, should be better taken into account in the design of LDCs and the related support measures.
• The process of graduation can be made more consistent by fully recognizing LDCs as countries suffering from most severe structural handicaps to sustainable development.
• The support measures should be more targeted on the structural vulnerabilities, in particular by using LDCs identification criteria (extended to various kinds of vulnerability) as aid allocation criteria, what will impact both present and graduating LDCs. 

[see power point]