Three East African nations meet criteria to exit Least Developed Country status
For the first time in history, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania have fulfilled the graduation criteria from the status of United Nations (UN) least developed countries (LDCs) since the category was established in 1971.
The three East African nations met the LDC graduation category for the first time in 2024 and will be considered for graduation at a triennial review in 2027 by the Committee for Development Policy (CDP), according to the report on the 26th session of the CDP released in May 2024.
“The Committee found that Rwanda, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania fulfilled the criteria for graduation for the first time. These countries will be considered for graduation at the next triennial review in 2027,” the report said.
However, the report also noted that following recommendations for the graduation of Cambodia, Djibouti and Senegal, it found that those countries require a five-year preparatory period. While recommendations for Comoros and Myanmar had been deferred to the 2027 triennial review.
Angola, Zambia and Southeast Asian nation Timor-Leste no longer meet the graduation criteria and are thus not eligible for graduation, the report stated.
A country can graduate from the LDC category by meeting two of the three criteria (income, human assets, and economic and environmental vulnerability), or by having a per capita income of more than twice the income graduation threshold, at two consecutive triennial meetings of the CDP, according to the UN.
The three criteria are measured using key indicators which are; Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, Human Assets Index (HAI) and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI).
No country satisfied all three criteria for inclusion in the list of least developed countries in 2024, the report notes.
The initial list of LDCs comprised 25 countries, additional countries have been added to the list since its inception in 1971, bringing the total to 45, comprising 33 African nations, 8 Asian nations, 3 from the Pacific and 1 in the Caribbean as of 2024.
