The Brussels Programme of Action (BPoA) adopted at the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC III) in Brussels, Belgium in May 2001, sets out wide-ranging actions to be implemented by LDCs and their development partners for the sustainable development of the LDCs. The priority issues of the BPOA are poverty reduction, gender equality, employment generation, governance, capacity building, and special problems faced by landlocked and small island developing countries, and the conflict affected LDCs. The BPoA contains 30 international development goals, including the MDGs.

In May 2011, the Fourth UN Conference on the LDCs (LDC IV) will take place in Istanbul, Turkey. This will review the implementation of the BPoA and come up with a new Programme of Action for LDCs for the upcoming decade, incorporating the outcomes of the September 2010 MDG Summit. In this context, there remains an urgent need for greater awareness and mobilisation for policies and programmes that target the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities living in the LDCs. LDC Watch is engaged with the official review process of the BPoA, which will culminate at the LDC-IV. The UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Development Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) has mandated LDC Watch to lead and coordinate the civil society process towards and at the LDC IV. This new LDC Programme of Action must ensure that its targets are in line with the heightened efforts needed to achieve the MDGs by 2015.

Attachments:

Brussels Programme of Action