Report of the Committee for Development Policy on Its 19th Session

Requests the Committee, at its twentieth session, to examine and make recommendations on the annual theme of the 2018 session of the Council;

Also requests the Committee to monitor the development progress of countries graduating and graduated from the category of least developed countries, in accordance with paragraph 21 of General Assembly resolution 67/221;

Encourages the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to pursue its methodological work to measure progress in and identify obstacles to the development of productive capacities in developing countries, in accordance with paragraph 76 (k) of the Nairobi Maafikiano,⁴ and to share the outcome of its work as an input to the impact assessments of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat and the monitoring reports of the Committee on countries graduating or graduated from the least developed country category;

Encourages the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Development Programme, the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the secretariat of the Enhanced Integrated Framework, the World Trade Organization, the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States and the regional commissions, among others, to provide inputs to the impact assessments prepared by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, to further contribute to the smooth transition of countries graduating from the least developed country category, highlighting those entities’ operational activities relating to building productive capacity in the least developed countries and the possible impact of graduation on such activities;

Requests the entities of the United Nations development system to continue to prioritize resource allocations to the least developed countries, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 71/243 of 21 December 2016;

Also requests the entities of the United Nations development system to provide assistance to graduating countries in the formulation and implementation of their national transition strategies and to consider country-specific support for graduated countries for a fixed period of time and in a predictable manner;

Invites the Committee to brief the Council every four years, in the year preceding the quadrennial comprehensive policy review, on how the United Nations development system is applying the least developed country category;