Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera will on Thursday deliver a keynote address to the Fifth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC)s in New York, USA, where he is expected to plead for more support for the world’s 46 poor countries from the rich and developed nations.
Foreign Affairs minister Nancy Tembo, briefing journalists Monday, said the Malawi leader is expected to hold bilateral meetings with different stakeholders.
Tembo said there is a greater need for developed countries and other development partners to attend the conference where 46 Least Developed Countries will participate.
Foreign Affairs Minister Nancy Tembo
Said Tembo: ‘’It is a high-level meeting as it will accord the platform for leaders including the Malawi leader President Lazarus Chakwera to meet United Nations, (UN) International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials among others to negotiate for more assistance for Malawi.
As Chair of UN group of Least Developed Countries President Dr Lazarus Chakwera will represent the 46 LDCs and deliver a message on their behalf at the conference to be held at the UN headquarters.
The conference will launch the Doha programme of Action for LDCs, which has priority areas that are critical for developing countries and are aligned to Malawi’s development aspirations.
The areas of interest include; investing in people in LDCs, enhancing international trade of LDCs, structural transformation as a driver of prosperity, leveraging the power of science, technology and innovation and mobilizing international solidarity as well as addressing climate change.
President Chakwera will leverage these priority areas for national development in line with Malawi 2063 agenda with a sharp focus on the first ten-year implementation plan.
According to the statement from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, President Chakwera will hold bilateral consultations with among other high-ranking officials and leaders.
The high-ranking officials and leaders that President Chakwera will engage include among others; the UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres, Achim Steiner Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Sheikh Mohammed bin Adulrahman Al-Thani Deputy Prime Minister of the State of Qatar, the host country of the next meeting of the UN-LDC5.
This is the fifth conference for the United Nations on the Least Developed Countries group since 1981, and it takes place every ten years.
The conference offers an opportunity to the United Nations to send a strong signal to the international community for need of special programs in support of the LDCs such as loans grants in terms of development financing, multinational trading such as preferential markets and technical assistance towards trade mainstreaming.
Malawi assumed the chairship of the UN group of Least Developed Countries in 2018, and it will come to an end in September, 2022.
The United Nations recognises the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as a category of States that are deemed highly disadvantaged in their development process as more than 75 percent of their populations still live in abject poverty.
