Least developed countries—Newly defined

Industrial Development in Least Developed Countries

Low-Carbon Development for the Least Developed Countries

The threat that human-induced climate change poses to many of the least developed countries (LdCs) is profound. Greater dependence on rainfed agriculture and forestry as sources of employment and income makes many of them more vulnerable to climatic changes and variability. many LdCs are already subject to climatic stress because of their location in the Tropics and other areas subject to a hig...

Folk-IS: Opportunistic Data Services in Least Developed Countries

According to a wide range of studies, IT should become a key facilitator in establishing primary education, reducing mortality and supporting commercial initiatives in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The main barrier to the development of IT services in these regions is not only the lack of communication facilities, but also the lack of consistent information systems, security procedures, eco...

Conflict in least-developed countries: challenging the Millennium Development Goals.

Five years before the 2015 deadline for achieving the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the picture on progress is mixed. Persisting challenges include dysfunctional health systems, gaps in reliable morbidity and mortality data, uneven progress between goals and growing inequity between subpopulations. Jan Vandemoortele, one of the architects of the MDGs, emphasizes that the ...

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...