II. NOTES ON LDCs MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE IN COTONOU

BACKGROUND

In 1971 the International Community recognized the existence of a category of especially poor and vulnerable countries and decided to accord a special attention through the adoption and implementation of programmes designed to solve specific issues of these countries referred to as «The Least Developed Countries» (LDCs).

Thus a first conference of the United Nations on the LDCs was held in Paris in 1981 which resulted in the adoption of a programme of assistance in the 80s for the benefit of these countries and in which their development partners undertook among other things to allocate to LDCs as public aid to development, 0.15% of their GDP.

The Second Conference of the United Nations on LDCs held similarly in Paris in September in 1990, which was concluded by the adoption of the Plan of Action for the benefit of LDCs for the 90s and whose main aim was to prevent the economic situation of the said countries to worsen more and to trigger and accelerate their growth and development.

However the number of these countries which was formaly 25 in 1974 shifted to 42 in 1990 and to 49 in the year 2001 out of which 34 were in Sub Saharan Africa, 9 in Asia, 5 in the Pacific and 1 in the Carribean, which evidenced very eloquently the failure of these two programmes.

Globally, 613 million of people living in LDCs out of which more than half on less than one dollar a day.

To forestall the shortcomings of these programmes a third conference was held in Brussels in May 2001 which led to the adoption of a Plan of Action designed to give a real and tangible impulse to LDCs economic takeoff.

This programme covering 2001 to 2010 decade provided for an innovative follow-up mechanism for its implementation and assessment.

Within this framework, a Bureau of the High Representative of LDCs, Developing landlocked countries and Small Island Developing Countries was directly placed under the United Nations Secretary General, to take care of LDCs specific issues. Similarly, a Coordination Bureau has been set up to ensure a follow-up and assessment of LDCs as a whole and for the implementation of the Brussels Plan of Action.

Taking over from Bangladesh that has been up to now LDCs Coordinator BENIN, became Chairman of the Coordination Bureau on 4th February 2002 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, made up of five (5) members, videlicet :
­ BENIN
­ SUNDAN
­ BENGLADESH
­ HAITI
­ NEPQL

The Objectives of the Cotonou Ministerial Meeting.

The Least Developed Countries Ministerial Meeting to be held in Cotonou from 5 to 7 August, 2002 the main theme is:

"Implementation of LDCs the Programme of Action and Poverty Eradication ". It will allow the participants to make an evaluation of the implementation of the said programme, assess achievements in poverty control, prepare LDCs for the international meeting already announced and set up a strategy for resource mobilization to ensure success of the third Programme of Action in favour of LDCs.

It is planned that a declaration will conclude the Cotonou Conference.

Some observations on poverty in Benin

With a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.420 in 2001, Benin is among countries with a weak human development index (index integrating income, education level and life expectancy).

Despite the outstanding efforts which led to the restoration of the macro economic balances and to an increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) amounting to 5.2% over 1996-2000 period, there are today about two (2) Millions of deprived (30% of the population) in Benin.

This poverty is more accute in rural areas (31.22%) than in urban areas (24.55) and affects more women than men.

The poverty control constitutes one of the priorities as shown by some initiatives such as the Social Dimension of Development, Common Social Minimum for all the National Studies on Long-Term Perspects NLTPS-BENIN 2025, National Community Development Programme, and Strategy for Poverty Eradication.

These various actions have, mostly yielded and still yield very encouraging results with more and more outstanding impacts on Human Development Indicators shifting from 0.368 in 1994 to 0.420 in the year 2001