Governments in Least Developed Countries need to adopt a “pragmatic, strategic and evolutionary” approach to strengthen their public sector capacity, bring about institutional reform and promote policy learning, says a new United Nations report. Entrepreneurs in LDCs are marred by limited finances, weak infrastructure, and, often, elevated political, economic and environmental risks, so they are “forced into” small-scale, low-value economic activities, stifling growth, says the latest Least Developed Countries Report 2018, ‘Entrepreneurship for Structural Transformation’, issued by UNCTAD. Continue reading →
Quamrul Chowdhury, Daily Star: 26 December: Amid deep frustration of scientists and activists, the political economy of climate change has taken a new turn at the ever-widening gulf between science and politics as a depleted number of official delegates from around 200 countries struggled to reach a common ground at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP24, in Katowice, Poland.
6 December 2018: A new review of climate targets
Gebru Jember Endalew, Chair the 47-strong least developed countries (LDCs) group at the UN climate negotiations, says that LDCs’ vulnerabilities to climate change mean they are hurt the most by its effects; floods, droughts and storms stunt their development. The science is clear that these impacts – and more – are only going to increase in intensity and frequency. LDCs are among those who suffer the most from climate change, despite contributing the least to its cause. 
14 November, 2018, 
Following a meeting in Addis Ababa to discuss preparations for COP24 climate negotiations in Katowice, Poland in December 2018, Gebru Jember Endalew, Chair of the LDC Group, said the world’s 47 LDCs need climate action and collaboration to lift their people out of poverty and achieve low-carbon, climate-resilient sustainable development. 
HONG KONG, Mike Ives, New York Times, 13 September 2018— When industrialized nations pledged in 2009 to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 to help the poorest countries deal with climate change, it won over some sceptics in the developing world who had argued that rich nations should pay up for contributing so much to the problem. But so far only $3.5 billion is committed out of $10.3 billion pledged to the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF). 
13 Sept 2018, Bangkok As the United Nations Climate Change negotiations drew to a close in Bangkok, Thailand last weekend, the Least Developed Countries Group drew attention to outstanding problems to be resolved, particularly climate finance and loss and damage. The meeting was the final gathering of countries before they meet to agree the implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement in Katowice, Poland this December. 
On Sunday, 12 August 2018, shortly after 4pm (local) Professor Samir Amin, African scholar and Marxist dies in hospital in Paris, where he had been flown for emergency treatment at the end of July. He was 87. All his life Amin was a Marxist, and also a pragmatist. He played a central role in advisory sessions over the prior two decades with the likes of Castro, Chavez and the world’s most respected grassroots activists. 