Third United Nations Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDC-III)

LDC Conferences have been held every ten years since 1981. The 1990 Conference, held in Paris, agreed on a three-tiered mechanism covering national, regional and global follow-up to monitor the implementation of the Programme of Action for LDCs for the 1990s, which was the outcome of the conference. UNCTAD was given the focal role of the review, appraisal and follow-up of implementation at the global level, and did so on an annual basis. The World Bank Consultative Group meetings and the UNDP Round Table meetings were designated the main mechanisms for the country level review.

In December 1997 the UN General Assembly set in motion the process of preparation for the present conference. LDC-III was officially launched in July 1999 with the first inter-agency consultations and first meeting of the Consultative Forum on the preparatory process, followed in September 1999 by the launching of the country-level preparation. Regional level preparatory meetings were held in Ethiopia in March 2000 and in Nepal and Niger in April 2000.

LDC-III had three basic areas of focus:

To assess the results of the Programme of Action of LDC-II at the country level
To review the implementation of international support measures; and to consider the formulation and adoption of a further Programme of Action (PoA) at the national, regional and international levels
An intergovernmental process, having as its main objective the formulation of the PoA began with the first session of the Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee in New York in July 2000

From the outset, high importance was given to country-based preparations with the LDCs having a central role, leading to a National Programme of Action for each LDC. The need for involvement of civil society, including NGOs and the private sector, both at country and international level was stressed. It was deemed critical that the outcome of the Conference be feasible, tangible, measurable and action-oriented.