Has Structural Economic Vulnerability Decreased in Least Developed Countries? Lessons Drawn from Retrospective Indices

Assessing the Economic Vulnerability of Small Island Developing States and the Least Developed Countries

Macro vulnerability of the small island developing states (SIDS) as well as of least developed countries (LDCs) has been an increasing concern for the international community. This concern has led to the creation of the economic vulnerability index (EVI) in order to assess comparatively the degree of structural economic vulnerability of countries. Structural vulnerability results mainly from na...

Financing Rural Structural Transformation in the Least Developed Countries

For the least developed countries (LDCs) to reach the Sustainable Development Goals, their rural economies will have to undergo structural transformation, given that most of their population lives in rural areas and agriculture is a main contributor to their economy. To this end, UNCTAD proposes that LDCs engage in the poverty-oriented structural transformation, or POST, of rural areas. It shou...

Industrial Development in Least Developed Countries

Estimating least-developed countries' vulnerability to climate-related extreme events over the next 50 years.

When will least developed countries be most vulnerable to climate change, given the influence of projected socio-economic development? The question is important, not least because current levels of international assistance to support adaptation lag more than an order of magnitude below what analysts estimate to be needed, and scaling up support could take many years. In this paper, we examine t...

Climate change and marine fisheries: Least developed countries top global index of vulnerability

Future impacts of climate change on marine fisheries have the potential to negatively influence a wide range of socio-economic factors, including food security, livelihoods and public health, and even to reshape development trajectories and spark transboundary conflict. Yet there is considerable variability in the vulnerability of countries around the world to these effects. We calculate a vuln...