The new loss and damage funding framework under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) emphasises the importance of channelling support through national systems and mechanisms. This approach could prove particularly challenging for African least developed ountries...

The aim of this note is to provide an analytical framework for a bilateral donor, in this case France, wishing to draw up a list of priority countries for its aid in a rational way, based on transparent political choices. Drawing up a list of priority countries for French aid, intended to...

This paper assesses the impact of the regulatory environment on the new business creation in 45 Least Developed Countries (LDC) using a panel data from 2000 to 2021. Empirical evidence, derived from a fixed effects (FE) model, indicates a strong relationship between business regulation and new...

Developing countries and the world's least developed countries in particular face significant challenges that hamper their access to regional and global trade. Assistance through aid for trade aims to help them build trade capacity and infrastructure. In 2017, the EU updated its own aid for...

The reform of official development assistance (ODA) accounting implemented from 2018, combined with the creation of Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD), represents a substantial improvement in the monitoring of development financing. In some respects, however, it remains...

It has been a long road to arrive at the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, now known as MVI. For more than 30 years, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), at international meetings dedicated to them, notably in Mauritius in 2005 and Samoa in 2014, have been calling for an index that would...

Existing literature frequently indicates a positive relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and green innovation (GI), yet findings are not definitive. Furthermore, the potential moderating influence of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure has not received...

Financial inclusion is a key factor for economic growth in most developing countries. This paper examines the relationship between financial inclusion and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) using panel data for the period 1990-2021. The empirical...

This paper uses export and import shares of intermediate goods to assess the extent of integration of G20 and non-G20 nations, including least developed countries (LDCs), in global value chains (GVCs). The G20's intermediate trade, especially the imports, recovered fast during and immediately...

All WTO members participate in the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), a rules-based bottom-up approach built on monitorable provisions (e.g. the publication of information, advance rulings, appeal or review of decisions, transparency, and border agency cooperation) aimed at reducing time in...

In the run-up to the Paris Summit, the question of mobilizing new resources to finance development and global public goods seems to receive much more attention than the way in which these new funds, like the old ones, are allocated among countries. If there is to be a "financial pact", it should...

As part of the preparation for the June Summit on financing, the question was raised as to whether a category of "vulnerable countries" should not be created or recommended. One would first have to ask who would be responsible for creating this category, so that it would be authoritative. Only...

In Zimbabwe, the foreign exchange auction trading system has been hailed as a solution to the challenges bedevilling organizations mainly those listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (Vinga, 2020). The impact of the foreign exchange trading systems has been questioned after six months of its...

This Research Paper reviews Least Developed Countries' (LDCs) collective progress on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), based on the available data on the indicators for the 169 SDG targets. It makes recommendations for LDCs and other States to consider advancing in...

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has adopted the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) and the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) as short term measures for decarbonisation of the shipping industry; the IMO also made the collection of relevant data and associated reporting of...

The Summit's focus on financing vulnerable countries or the fight against vulnerability highlights the fact that the allocation of concessional financing between countries must be considered alongside the mobilization of new resources. This note identifies four principles: (i) the countries...

Empirical studies of the economic effects of climate change largely rely on climate anomalies for causal identification purposes. Slow and permanent changes in climate-driven geographical conditions, that is, climate change as defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have been...

This Article attempts to understand the lack of Least Developed Countries (LDC)s and small developing Member States' participation as complainants in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) by undertaking the case study of the only LDC initiated dispute in the DSB:...

1 Introduction -- 2 Africa's Least Developed Countries: Missed opportunities -- 3 Asia's Least Developed Countries: Policy Lessons -- 4 Central Asia: Three decades after the economic transition -- 5 The Pacific: Development challenges of small island states -- 6 Path dependence and policy as...

Rising levels of food insecurity continue to pose a threat to economic and social stability in developing, LDCs and low-income countries, and the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) provides the policy structure to ensure sustainable reform for trade in agriculture products and domestic...

In 2021, the United Nations Committee on Development Policy adopted a resolution that Bangladesh would graduate from least developed country (LDC) status after a period of 5 years. This means that in 2026 Bangladesh would have to forego its exemption to intellectual property (IP) provisions of...

This report looks at progress over the past decade in supporting the integration of least-developed countries (LDCs) into the multilateral trading system. Prepared as the WTO's contribution to the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5), the report highlights that...