United Nations Least Developed Country Category – Curse or Boon?

Opinion by Anis Chowdhury (sydney)Monday, September 21, 2026Inter Press Service SYDNEY, September 21 (IPS) - The UN General Assembly will soon vote – most likely favourably – on Bangladesh’s request to postpone the country’s graduation from the UN’s Least Developed Country (LDC) category, currently scheduled for November this year. The request for a 3-year extension was endorsed by the ECOSOC following the recommendation of the UN’s Committee for Development Policy (CDP). It is highly likely that the extension will also be justifiably granted to Nepal and Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao, PDR) – the two other countries scheduled to graduate with Bangladesh, given the fast deteriorating global economic situation and recent natural disaster in Nepal. In fact, the same argument for an extension may be admissible to all prospective graduating countries, such as Solomon Islands (2027), Cambodia (2029) and Senegal (2029). Anis ChowdhuryHowever, this raises some serious questions regarding the LDC category itself and the successive 10-year support programmes for LDCs.The backgroundThe United Nations established the LDC category in 1971 for low-income countries facing severe structura...