Background
UNCTAD’s Least Developed Countries Report provides a comprehensive and authoritative source of socio-economic analysis and data on the world's most impoverished countries.
The Report is intended for a broad readership of governments, policy makers, researchers and all those involved with LDCs’ development policies.
The Least Developed Countries Report 2020 will re-examine the concept of productive capacities, and assess their pivotal role as the building blocks for structural transformation and sustainable development, considering current technological disruptions.
Objective
The Peer Review of the forthcoming The Least Developed Countries Report 2020 brought together invited economic and trade analysts, research scholars, policy makers, and subject-matter experts to review and discuss a draft of the forthcoming Report.
The objective of the Peer Review was to critically assess the methodologies followed in the Report, and deepen the analysis contained therein, in light of recent scholarship. The Peer Review was undertaken as part of a comprehensive effort to ensure the highest-quality and analytical rigour of the final Report.
Participants included invited experts from the following institutions:
- Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development (CSEND)
- Center for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA)
- Chancellor College
- Committee for Development Policy
- European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
- International Institute of Social Studies
- International Labor Organization (ILO)
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
- Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Development Centre
- Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
- Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex
- South Centre
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)
- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
- United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)
- United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
- Université de Kara
- University of Nottingham
- University of Yaounde II, Cameroon
Given the current travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Peer Review was held virtually.
The Least Developed Countries Report 2020 will be launched globally in November 2020.
For further information on UNCTAD’s work in support of the LDCs, please see: Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes.
