Excellencies
Mr Executive-Secretary
Civil Society Representatives
Distinguished Participants
Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen

Let my join my colleague and friend, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, in welcoming you to this Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries.
Allow me, first, to thank the Economic Commission for Africa and UNDP, who have co-organised this meeting with the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, for their intellectual and financial contributions.
I would like to express particular appreciation to our hosts, the Economic Commission for Africa, for their administrative and logistical support, on top of their substantive contributions.
I would also like to thank the LDC Governments for showing tremendous interest in this process, including the preparation of country reports; the UN Resident Coordinators for their support to the national preparatory activities; the host of the LDC-IV Conference, the Government of Turkey for their political and material support; and our civil society partners for their contributions through national reviews and the civil society forum that concluded last week.
I cannot forget to thank the Government and the people of Ethiopia for their continued hospitality and engagement.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen
This is the second regional meeting we are holding in preparation for the Fourth United Nations Conference on LDCs, or LDC-IV, that will take place in Turkey in 2011.
The Asian regional meeting, co-organised by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the UN Office of the High Representative for LDCs and the Government of Bangladesh, took place in January in Dhaka.
The regional meetings are an extremely important part of the LDC-IV process. As a people-centred, ground-up approach, the process has started with the needs, experiences and aspirations of the people in the LDCs through national reviews. This meeting will enable us to distill the outcomes of the national reviews in the Africa region, share experiences and, more importantly, identify shared priorities and forge common approaches towards effective solutions.
The LDC-IV process is an opportunity to forge a clear vision anchored in universal values and principles, to enable the 800 million people in LDCs get out of poverty and onto the path to sustainable development. This regional meeting will enable African LDCs and their partners to contribute in shaping that vision, ensuring that their priorities are an integral part of the LDC-IV outcome.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
We are meeting at a time when the great sense of optimism about the development prospects of the Least Developed Countries that marked the start of the millennium is beginning to wear thin.
The Millennium Summit in September 2000 singled out the Least Developed Countries for the special attention of the international community.
The Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Brussels in 2001 provided a global framework for translating this renewed commitment into development actions by the LDCs and their development partners.
A number of initiatives, including the Everything But Arms of the European Union, debt cancellation and increased official development assistance, were declared. In Africa, home to 33 of the 49 LDCs, the New Partnership for Africa's Development – NEPAD – was born with the promise of a better future for the people of Africa. LDCs implemented reforms aimed at making their economies more efficient and competitive.
For a while, it looked like these efforts were paying off and LDCs were finally on the road to sustainable development. The rate of economic growth increased to more than 5 percent. Foreign direct investment multiplied. Certain socio-economic indicators, in particular access to primary education and safe water, improved.
While these achievements were expected to result in a decline in poverty, this has not been the case.
In many cases, especially among African LDCs, the rates of poverty have only increased. More than half the 800 million people in the LDCs still live in abject poverty. Economic growth has tended to benefit a few sectors, resulting in increased socio-economic inequalities.
The recent triple crises that have hit the world – the energy, food and financial crises – have unfortunately proved that nearly a decade of otherwise reasonable economic growth has not succeeded in removing the primary weaknesses of the LDCs. The first decade of the millennium has turned out to be yet another lost decade, with no prospects of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
In this regard, African LDCs are in the worst situation. Whereas a number of LDCs in Asia and the Pacific have made some progress towards industrialisation and a strong service sector, in Africa, growth continues to be driven by the low-technology commodity and extractive sectors. This leaves them particularly vulnerable to external shocks, including price fluctuations, as well as deteriorating terms of trade. Without reversing this situation, we cannot achieve the goal of reducing, let alone completely eradicating, poverty.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen
As we prepare for the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in 2011, allow me to highlight, briefly, some areas that I believe need particular attention in order to significantly improve the socio-economic situation of African LDCs.
First, in African LDCs, attention needs to be placed as much on the rate of growth as the nature of that growth. Commodity and natural resource-driven growth is not sustainable. African LDCs must break the shackles of commodity dependence. Deliberate efforts have to be made to move up the value chain. Our rich resource endowments need to be closely linked with human resources, technology and entrepreneurial development. It is the only way to be competitive in an integrated global economy and achieve the required structural transformation.
Second, with high population growth rates and a young, increasingly educated population, African LDCs need to target employment as a source of growth. Failure to create employment for the rapidly growing ranks of young people would not only be a missed economic opportunity, but it could also pose a risk to peace, security and political stability.
Third, greater emphasis needs to be put on achieving the MDGs and universal access to essential services including food, water, sanitation, education and health. It is unacceptable that with all the agricultural technology in the world, more than 300 million Africans – a quarter of the population – remain food insecure. African LDCs need to move quickly to implement the African Union target of allocating 10 percent of their budgets to agriculture. As outlined in the Comprehensive Framework for Action of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Taskforce on Food Security, small holder farmers must be empowered to play a greater role both at the production and marketing levels.
Fourth, there is a need to generate a critical mass of productive capacity, including physical infrastructure, in order to take advantage of the trade preferences for LDCs as well as the opportunities offered by an integrated world economy. While market access challenges remain, the biggest obstacles to LDC participation in international trade lie on the supply side. These have to be addressed through both private and public investments in strategic sectors, including energy, transport and communication. Aid for trade has an important role to play in this regard.
Fifth, there is a need for a “Green Deal” for LDCs to enable them to address the disproportionate environmental threats and vulnerabilities they face. The scientific and technical capacity of LDCs to exploit renewable energy, to use water resources more efficiently, and to protect their biodiversity needs to be strengthened.
Sixth, there is need for a significant increase in international support. With the indebtedness of the LDCs increasing as they grapple with the effects of the financial, food and energy crises, debt cancellation and increased official development assistance have to take on added urgency. Development assistance needs to be scaled-up, predictable, concessional and targeted towards the priorities of LDCs as identified by themselves through transparent and accountable processes.
Finally, African LDCs have made significant progress towards good governance. Periodic elections and participatory democracy are becoming the norm rather than the exception. The same level of commitment needs to be shown in promoting transparency and accountability in the use of public resources. If well invested, Africa's own resources can go a long way in improving the living conditions of the poor. Commitment to the African Peer Review Mechanism can help African LDCs improve their political and economic governance.
The private sector, civil society and external partners have their roles to play in addressing these challenges, but the primary responsibility rests with the LDC governments themselves.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen
Africa is in a unique position among developing countries in having strong institutions to foster regional cooperation and integration. The African LDCs need to take advantage of these institutional arrangements to advance their development objectives through regional collaboration with each other and with other African countries. I have no doubt about the readiness and capacity of the Economic Commission for Africa to facilitate these arrangements.
Let's use the Fourth United Nations Conference on the LDCs to recapture and to reinforce the optimism, political commitment and international solidarity that we saw at the dawn of the millennium. African LDCs, and LDCs in general, cannot afford to lose yet another decade. The MDG agenda and indeed, the entire global development agenda cannot succeed unless it creates decent conditions of living for the 800 million people in the LDCs.
Thank you for your attention.