31 September 2014: Gyan Chandra Acharya, UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), said the upcoming ten-year review conference of the Almaty Programme of Action for LLDCs will serve as a platform to turn the land-locked developing countries into “land-linked” developing countries. The Second UN Conference on LLDCs will take place in Vienna, Austria, on 3-5 November 2014. Acharya urged governmental and private transit and development partners to participate at the highest level possible.

The Office of the High Representative (OHRLLS) gave a briefing in New York, US, on 31 September 2014, ahead of the Second Session of the Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee, convening on 2-3 October 2014.

The conference in November aims to assess the implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action (APoA), as well as new and emerging challenges and opportunities and the means to address them.

Participants from governments of LLDCs, transit developing countries and donor countries, UN and other international organizations and the private sector will discuss the needs of LLDCs, in particular those related to infrastructure development, transit and trade facilitation, policy framework, in order to reduce transit costs and enable those countries to fully participate in the global trade. The conference will also try to mobilize additional international support measures in favor of the LLDCs and adopt a renewed partnership between the LLDCs, transit developing countries and their development partners.

Another item on the conference’s agenda is to develop a more efficient monitoring and evaluation mechanism for the successful implementation of the new programme of action building on existing arrangements at national, sub-regional, regional and global levels. [Conference Website] [IISD RS Sources] [PrepCom 2 Website]