Smooth Transition Strategy for Countries Graduating From the List of Least Developed Countries

Invites the graduating country, in cooperation with its bilateral and multilateral development and trading partners and with the support of the United Nations system, to prepare, during the three-year period, a transition strategy to adjust to the phasing out, over a period appropriate to the development situation of the country, of the advantages associated with its membership on the list of least developed countries, and to identify actions to be taken by the graduating country and its bilateral and multilateral development and trading partners to that end;

Recommends that the graduating country establish, in cooperation with its bilateral and multilateral development and trading partners, a consultative mechanism to facilitate the preparation of the transition strategy and the identification of the associated actions;

Requests the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, in his capacity as Chair of the United Nations Development Group, to assist countries graduating from the list of least developed countries by providing, if requested, the support of the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the United Nations Country Team to the consultative mechanism;

Urges all development partners to support the implementation of the transition strategy and to avoid any abrupt reductions in either official development assistance or technical assistance provided to the graduated country;

Invites development and trading partners to consider extending to the graduated country trade preferences previously made available as a result of least developed country status, or reducing them in a phased manner in order to avoid their abrupt reduction;

Invites all members of the World Trade Organization to consider extending to a graduated country, as appropriate, the existing special and differential treatment and exemptions available to least developed countries for a period appropriate to the development situation;

Recommends that the continued implementation of technical assistance programmes under the Integrated Framework for Trade-related Technical Assistance to Least Developed Countries be considered for the graduated country over a period appropriate to the development situation of the country;

Invites the Government of the graduated country to closely monitor, with the support of the consultative mechanism, the implementation of the transition strategy and to keep the Secretary-General informed on a regular basis;

Requests the Committee for Development Policy to continue to monitor the development progress of the graduated country as a complement to its triennial review of the list of least developed countries, with the assistance and support of other relevant entities, and to report thereon to the Economic and Social Council.