​After the graduation of Samoa from LDC status in 2014, there are four LDCs in the Pacific region: Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. All four are concerned with the challenge of reclassification from LDC status.

Vanuatu’s established graduation date is 4 December 2020. In March 2018, the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP) recommended inter alia Kiribati, Sao Tome and Principe, and the Solomon Islands for graduation, while the consideration of Timor-Leste’s graduation was deferred to 2021. In March 2012, the Committee had already recommended the graduation of Tuvalu. However, the recommendation was never endorsed by the Economic and Social Council.

In light of these developments, this regional workshop invites a number of small island LDC policy-makers to a focused dialogue with UNCTAD and relevant partner agencies on the challenge of graduation in times of resilience-building efforts.

The workshop aims:

• To raise awareness, among invited policy-makers, of the implications of graduation from LDC status and of the possibility of seeking alternative special support when the quest for structural economic progress remains high on the agenda of these countries; and
  
  • To enable UNCTAD and partner agencies to enrich their perception, in their substantive advocacy work, of what small island LDCs expect from the United Nations system as a promoter of international responses to the challenges faced by vulnerable economies, in accordance with the Samoa Pathway.