Helping Bangladesh make graduation a milestone of continued economic progress

The United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP), in its 2018 review of the list of least developed countries (LDCs), found Bangladesh pre-eligible for graduation from LDC status in light of the country’s performance under the three criteria for identifying LDCs. While meeting two of the three graduation lines would have been sufficient for making Bangladesh a case of pre-qualification for graduation, the country pre-qualified on the basis of all three criteria, thereby standing out as one of the first two LDCs in history on its way to three-pronged graduation. It it expected that the country’s eligibility for graduation will be confirmed in the next Triennial Review of the CDP, scheduled to take place in February 2021.

The foreseeable graduation of Bangladesh creates three important needs:

1. To understand the extent to which there has been structural transformation in Bangladesh;
2. To measure the anticipated impact of probable losses of benefits in the context of graduation;
3. To pave the way for a smooth transition to post-LDC status, and to create a climate in which there should be no room for fear of the unknown.

This online workshop aims to facilitate a leap in that three-tiered direction, by instilling greater awareness and understanding, among national policy makers, of the key implications of the likely change of status.

Objectives

The purpose of the workshop is to help national policymakers and other national stakeholders make graduation a milestone of continuing and intensifying structural transformation and social progress. To that end, the workshop offers an opportunity to:

1. Review the progress made by Bangladesh on the LDC graduation thresholds and on other dimensions identified by the Vulnerability Profile in the fields of economic, social and environmental performance;
2. Examine the broad implications for Bangladesh of the expected change of country status, notably the potential benefits of graduation and the possible adverse consequences of it, in light of the ex-ante Impact Assessment; and
3. Discuss the next steps to be taken in the country’s smooth transition out of LDC status.

Participation in the workshop

Participants will include national authorities from Ministries and other public institutions, as well as stakeholders from the private sector and civil society.