LDC graduation comes with its own implications. --- Clinging to old status is not about hoping to continue to get concessional aid per sè as the lecture text suggests. Truth is, not enough has been done to make LDCs more resilient or to boost incomes so that they are self sufficient post graduation. Global health, economic and environmental crises are becoming more frequent, and the fallout for LDCs regular and calamitous. Even before the current shock, LDCs suffered worse than most from trade, financial and commodity price volatility, cyclones, droughts and other disasters.

At the start of 2020, 12 least developed countries (LDCs) were on schedule to leave the category by the middle of the decade. That timetable now looks uncertain because of the unprecedented COVID-19 impact to the global community at large. Many economies are collapsing as demand for exports falls, tourism tumbles and remittances slump with the repatriation of foreign workers. As LDCs and others struggle to repay their debts, global financial turbulence looms.

Source author: Malefetsane Dominic Mosala mosalalaw@gmail.com