Staff Reporter: The United Nations has approved the recommendation of Bangladesh to cross over from the least developed countries. Bangladesh is the only country that has met all the three criteria. The landmark decision was taken at the 40th plenary session of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday (November 24). By approving the recommendations, Bangladesh completed all the steps for the next step from the LDC category.
This is a landmark achievement in Bangladesh’s development journey, which coincides with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence and the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Speaking after the adoption of this landmark resolution, the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, Ambassador Rabab Fatima thanked all the Member States, especially the development partners, for their support to reach consensus for the adoption of this resolution. She said, “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina envisioned to transform Bangladesh into a middle-income country by 2021 and a developed country by 2041. She has led us from the front in this exciting journey despite the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Stressing that the graduation of an LDC is not only a success of the country itself but also a testimony of the strength of multilateral partnership led by the UN, she said, “graduation should not be a punishment; it should be a reward.” She highlighted the importance of ensuring an incentives-based international support structure to graduating and graduated LDCs. She also called for tailored and clearly laid down roadmaps to address every aspect of graduation challenge, namely, post-graduation international support measures, smooth transition, Financing for SDGs implementation etc.
She said that the upcoming 5th United Nations Conference on the LDCs (LDC5) to be held in Doha, Qatar provides the development partners with a good opportunity to come up with a transformative programme of action for the LDCs for the next decade. The Draft Doha Programme of Action (DPOA) identified graduation as one of its priority areas. It has set a target to enable 15 additional LDCs to meet the criteria for graduation by 2031. The success of this ambitious target will largely depend on enhanced support and solidarity from the development partners.
It is to be mentioned that Ambassador Rabab Fatima and Ambassador Robert Rae of Canada are co-chairing the preparatory process of the LDC5 conference.
BP/SM
