Botswana to host High-Level Africa Regional Review Meeting of the Vienna Programme of Action to address challenges facing LLDCs.

The United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) jointly with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Government of Botswana will hold a High-level Africa regional review meeting of the Vienna Programme of Action  (VPoA) for Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs).

The meeting will be held under the theme, “From Vienna to Kigali: towards a new decade of partnerships for a transformative Programme of Action for LLDCs” in Gaborone, Botswana from 29-30 May 2023.

The outcomes of the Regional Review Meeting will feed into the preparatory process of the Third United Nations Conference on LLDCs to be held in 2024. The Conference will review the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action for LLDCs for the Decade 2014-2024, formulate and adopt a renewed framework for international support to address the special needs of LLDCs.

LLDCs are countries without territorial access to the sea as a result isolation from world markets and high transit costs impose serious constraints on their overall socio-economic development. For LLDCs, their seaborne trade almost always must transit through other countries, mostly also developing countries—a process which involves dealing with cumbersome border-crossing procedures and inadequate transit transport infrastructure. Thus, although LLDCs already face other development challenges, they also face substantially increased costs for trade and transport because of their geographic location.

Of the world’s 32 LLDCs, 16 are in Africa, and 13 of these are also least developed countries (LDCs).

Recognising the complex challenges facing LLDCs, the international community in 2014 adopted the Vienna programme of action for Landlocked Developing Countries. This is a  ten-year action-plan aimed at accelerating sustainable development in LLDCs.

The Vienna Programme of Action consists of a set of six priority areas of interventions; Fundamental Transit Policy Issues; Infrastructure Development and Maintenance; International Trade and Trade Facilitation; Regional Integration and Cooperation, Structural Economic Transformation, and Means of Implementation. These priority areas are intended as a holistic approach to the peculiar challenges faced by LLDCs that have, over the years, impeded their economic transformation, as well as inclusive and sustainable growth.

The objectives of the Africa regional review meeting of the VPoA are to: