WORKSHOP ON QATAR AND THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

March 4th, 2023 Park Hyatt Hotel, Doha

Background on LDCs and UN LDC5 Conference

The Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) is convened in Doha on March 5-9, 2023. The countries that have an average per capita income below USD 1,018 are listed by the United Nations (UN) as the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and should raise above USD 1,222 to be able to graduate from this list.The commitment made during LDC4 to graduate a substantial number of 49 countries has not been fulfilled and there are still 46 LDCs. The optimistic reading is to consider the LDC status a temporary stage in the trajectory of development for 46 countries. While the targets set in 2011 have not been fully met, a certain level of progress has been achieved with 16 countries having met the criteria in one way or another and 4 of them having graduated from the LDC status.

This optimistic account requires a considerable amount of strategizing and planning in due course. The crises faced by the LDCs have manifold. The COVID19 pandemic had a considerable negative impact, in addition to global warming, human and nature- made disasters, civil wars, armed conflicts, lack of food security, poverty and hunger, among others. Doha Program of Action (DPoA) targets the graduation of another 15 LDCs by 2031. Meanwhile, more than one-third of LDCs are at different stages of the graduation process. As such, there is a reason for optimism while considerable number of challenges and uncertainties stand on this bumpy road.

The LDC5 Conference is hosted in Doha and set the priorities, responsibilities and implementation of policies pertaining to the LDCs in the next ten years.

There will be countless number of references to DPoA and the conference assigned a virtual supervisory and regulatory role to Qatar. This perception will position Qatar as both a bearer of success and failure regarding the UN-led performance on LDC issues. In any case, hosting LDC5 and adopting DPoA will enhance Qatar's state brand and soft power, empowering Qatar in the LDC geographies over the next decade. The maximization of benefits, in this sense, will depend on effectively utilizing the opportunities in this regard.

Rationale of Workshop

A workshop on Qatar and the LDCs preceding UN LDC5 conference will inform the conference mass, Qatari parties, local community and interested international audience from a Qatari perspective. This kind of introductory and informative event is what has been expected by all interested parties as it had been almost a tradition in the previous UN LDC Conferences. For example, the Intellectuals Forum that had been organized in Istanbul in 2011 preceded UN LDC4 in a similar vein. The UN LDC Conference is convened every 10 years, in current case 12 years due to the Pandemic. Workshop on Qatar and Least Developed Countries will discuss issues pertaining to the LDCs with a focus on the theme of the current Conference: "From Potential to Prosperity". The workshop will deal with the specifics of Qatar’s involvement with the LDCs, projected role(s) in the implementation of DPoA as well as Qatar’s development and humanitarian aid in the LDCs. It will also discuss the issues of disaster relief and conflict resolution as major impediments to the potentials of LDCs to achieve prosperity with a reference to Qatar’s possible contributions.

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