27 July 2012: The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has adopted a draft resolution, titled “Report of the Committee for Development Policy on its Fourteenth Session” (E/2012/L.25), which reaffirms the importance of a smooth transition in ensuring that countries graduating from the “least developed” (LDC) category are eased onto a sustainable development path. It also requests the CDP to monitor the development progress of such countries.

The Council adopted the resolution during its 2012 Substantive Session. It emphasizes that a successful transition must be based on each graduating country’s own national strategy for a smooth transition, which should be developed under national leadership but with support from the international community.

In the resolution, the Council also endorses the recommendation of the Committee that South Sudan be added to the list of LDCs, and that Vanuatu be graduated from the list. It takes note of the recommendation to graduate Tuvalu from the LDCs and decides to consider the issue at its next substantive session. The Council also recalls its endorsement, in 2009 and subsequent sessions, of the Committee’s recommendation that Equatorial Guinea be graduated from the LDCs list and urges the UN General Assembly to take note of that recommendation. [Publication: ECOSOC Resolution on the Report of the Committee for Development Policy on its Fourteenth Session] [IISD RS Story on ECOSOC Substantive Session]