Launch of the Least Developed Countries Report 2007

Nairobi, 19 July 2007 - The least Developed Countries Report 2007 was launched today. The Report focuses on national and international policies to promote knowledge as a catalytic input to the development of productive capacities in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

Since the year 2000, UNCTAD’s Least Developed Countries Report has argued that there are two possible future scenarios for the 767 million people who now live in the poorest countries in the world.

This year’s report focuses on how LDC Governments and their development partners can promote technological progress in LDCs as part of their efforts to develop domestic productive capacities. It is a contribution to promoting one of the extreme scenarios, that it is possible to envisage a progressive transition in which sustained and accelerated economic growth is achieved through the development of productive capacities, and that with the associated expansion of productive employment opportunities, there will be substantial poverty reduction. In that scenario, foreign aid supports development rather than “fire fighting” complex humanitarian emergencies.

This report focuses on five issues under the subject of knowledge, technological learning and innovation, in the context of the least developed countries which are:

• The extent to which the development of technological capabilities is occurring in LDCs through international market linkages, particularly through international trade, FDI and licensing.
• The way in which science, technology and innovation (STI) issues are currently treated within LDCs, particularly in Poverty Reduction Strategy papers (PRSPs), and how STI policies gear towards technological catch-up could be integrated into the development strategies of LDCs;
• Current controversies about how stringent IPR regimes affect technological development processes in LDCs and policy options for improving their learning environment;
• The extent of loss of skilled human resources through emigration and policy options for dealing with that issue; and
• How ODA is supporting technological learning and innovation in the LDCs and ways to improve it.