蘑菇视频

As the world prepares for the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5), we need to ask not only whether this category is still relevant today but also what graduation from this status implies. After the LDC category was created fifty years ago, the number of such countries grew steadily due to the emergence of newly independent countries that faced significant disadvantages as well as major setbacks experienced by other developing countries. Nonetheless, LDC status was envisaged as a temporary phase in a country’s development trajectory: the concept of graduation was introduced twenty years after the LDC category itself. Yet between 1991 and 2010, only two out of a maximum of 50 countries graduated. By the end of this period, two other countries were officially graduating and four had met the graduation criteria for the first time, which is the initial step in the multi-stage graduation process. Even when graduation was achieved, it was perceived as a punishment – in the form of losing international support – rather than as cause of celebrating a development success. This track record has led people to question the viability and usefulness of the LDC category. In doing so, there is a risk of overlooking its positive aspects.