UNITED NATIONS: The world’s poorest countries are trapped in an economic vicious circle, which must be reversed if new development goals are to be met, says a new report from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The ‘Least Developed Countries Report 2014’ released on Thursday argues that those nations, known as ‘LDCs’, are the battleground on which the UN-led post-2015 development agenda will be won or lost.

The report — subtitled Growth with Structural Transformation: A post-2015 development agenda calls on the international community to learn from the failure of most of the poorest countries in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) despite registering strong economic growth — a phenomenon the report dubs the “LDC paradox”.

This paradox arises from the failure of LDC economies to achieve structural changes despite having grown vigorously as a result of strong export prices and rising aid flows.

According to the UN, from 2002 to 2008, LDC growth exceeded the 7 per cent target agreed by the international community, and even after the 2008 financial crisis they grew faster than other developing countries, at an average of 5.7pc per year.

However, only one LDC — the Lao People’s Democratic Republic — is on track to achieve all seven of the MDG targets analysed in the report, and only four of the 39 LDCs outside South and South-East Asia (Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda) are on track to meet even a majority of these targets.

Under the MDGs, global poverty was halved by rapid progress in the more advanced developing countries, the report says.

But a central goal of the post-2015 development agenda is expected to be the eradication of poverty by 2030. This means reducing it to zero everywhere — and it is in the LDCs that this will be most challenging. Their performance, the report says, will largely determine the success or failure of the whole post-2015 development agenda.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2014