In its latest triennial review of the list of LDCs in 2006, the Committee for Development Policy used the following three criteria for the identification of the LDCs.

(i)      A low-income criterion, based on a three-year average estimate of the gross national income (GNI) per capita (under  US$ 745 for inclusion, above US$ 900 for graduation);

(ii)     A human capital status criterion, involving a composite Human Assets Index (HAI) based on indicators of: (a) nutrition: percentage of population undernourished; (b) health: mortality rate for children aged five years or under; (c) education: the gross secondary school enrolment ratio; and (d) adult literacy rate; and

(iii)    An economic vulnerability criterion, involving a composite Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI) based on indicators of: (a) population size; (b) remoteness; (c) merchandise export concentration; (d) share of agriculture, forestry and fisheries in gross domestic product; (e) homelessness owing to natural disasters; (f) instability of agricultural production; and (g) instability of exports of goods and services.

To be added to the list, a country must satisfy all three criteria. In addition, since the fundamental meaning of the LDC category, i.e. the recognition of structural handicaps, excludes large economies, the population must not exceed 75 million. To become eligible for graduation, a country must reach threshold levels for graduation for at least two of the aforementioned three criteria, or its GNI per capita must exceed at least twice the threshold level, and the likelihood that the level of GNI per capita is sustainable must be deemed high. (www.un.org/ohrlls)

With regard to the 2006 triennial review of the list, the CDP recommended that Papua New Guinea be included in, and Samoa be graduated from, the list of least developed countries. Equatorial Guinea, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Vanuatu were found eligible for graduation for the first time by the Committee. The General Assembly in its recent resolutions (59/209, 59/210 and 60/33) decided on the graduation of Cape Verde at the end of 2007 and Maldives in January 2011.

At the end of 2007, Cape Verde became the only second country to graduate from the LDC group since its establishment in 1974. Botswana left the group in 1994.