Altruism but not Quite: the genesis of the least developed country (ldc) category

Abstract

This article provides a historical account of the creation of the ldc category in 1971, analyses the motives of the main actors and examines the motivation of the UN to establish the category. A literature review, official document analysis and expert interviews indicate that, from the perspective of both developed and more advanced developing countries, the initial ldc identification process aimed to generate a reduced list of mostly small and economically and politically less significant countries. Contrary to the official narrative, this served the interests of both developed countries (by undermining the UN's implicit effort to normalise/depoliticise international assistance) and more advanced developing countries (disturbed by the discrimination created within the developing countries' group, favouring the most disadvantaged among them).

Acknowledgements

Preliminary versions were presented at the Development Dialogue Conference, iss, the Hague, June 2011; the Conference on Development Economics and Policy, kfw Development Bank and the German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin, June 2011; and the 2011 ceres Summer School, Utrecht, July 2011. Participants' comments are gratefully acknowledged. Acknowledgement is also due to Peter van Bergeijk, Karel Jansen and Susan Newman for detailed comments on earlier drafts of this article, and to Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (fct) for grant support.

Notes

1 ldcs have the lowest per capita incomes and the highest population growth rates; are the most off-track to achieving the Millennium Development Goals; are at the bottom of the Human Development Index rankings; have severe infrastructure deficits; have not overcome economic vulnerability nor structurally transformed their economies; have limited productive capacity; and have more than 75 per cent of their population living in poverty. United Nations, Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011–2020, Istanbul, 2011, p 1, at http://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/ldc/shared/documents/IPoA.pdf, accessed 25 July 2011.

2 United Nations, General Assembly Resolution 36/194, United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, 17 December 1981, at http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/408/20/IMG/NR040820.pdf?OpenElement, accessed 8 December 2011; unctad's ldc Reports 1984–2010; UN, Paris Declaration and Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the 1990s, 1990, at http://www.un-documents.net/ac147-18.htm, accessed 20 September 2010; UN, Report of the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, Brussels, 14–20 May 2001, at http://www.un.org/special-rep/ohrlls/ldc/Contributions/Report%20of%20the%20LDC%20III_E.pdf, accessed 20 September 2010; uncdp, Handbook on the Least Developed Country Category: Inclusion, Graduation and Special Support Measures, New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, 2008; P Guillaumont, Caught in a Trap: Identifying the Least Developed Countries, Paris: Economica, 2009; and UN, Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011–2020.

3 uncdp, Handbook on the Least Developed Country Category: Inclusion, Graduation and Special Support Measures, New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, 2008, p v.

4 MT Berger, ‘The end of the “Third World”?’, Third World Quarterly, 15(2), 1994, pp 257–275; J Brohman, ‘Universalism, Eurocentrism, and ideological bias in development studies: from modernisation to neoliberalism’, Third World Quarterly, 16(1), 1995, pp 121–140; M Kamrava, ‘Political culture and a new definition of the Third World’, Third World Quarterly, 16(4), 1995, pp 691–701; and SY Ma, ‘Third World studies, development studies and post-communist studies: definitions, distance and dynamism’, Third World Quarterly, 19(3), 1998, pp 339–356.

5 Brohman, ‘Universalism, Eurocentrism, and ideological bias in development studies’, p 122.

6 Berger, ‘The end of the “Third World”?’, p 260.

7 Ma, ‘Third World studies, development studies and post-communist studies’, p 339.

8 A Payne, ‘The global politics of development: towards a new research agenda’, Progress in Development Studies, 1(1), 2001, p 7.

9 Berger, ‘The end of the “Third World”?’, p 260.

10 Payne, ‘The global politics of development’ p 7.

11 Berger, ‘The end of the “Third World”?’, p 263.

12 S Schlesinger, ‘Can the United Nations reform?’, World Policy Journal, Fall 1997, pp 47–52.

13 JP Thérien, ‘Multilateral institutions and the poverty debate: towards a global third way?’, International Journal, 57(2), 2002, p 239.

14 L Wolf-Phillips, ‘Why “Third World”? Origin, definition and usage’, Third World Quarterly, 9(4), 1987, p 1318.

15 R Jolly, L Emmerij, D Ghai, F Lapeyre, ‘The 1980s: losing control and marginalizing the poorest’, in UN Contributions to Development Thinking and Practice, UN Intellectual History Project Series, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004, p 160.

16 Berger, ‘The end of the “Third World”?’, p 270. See also J Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine—‘Development’, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990; Ferguson, ‘The anti-politics machine’, in A Sharma & A Gupta (eds), The Anthropology of the State: A Reader, Hoboken, NY: Blackwell Publishing, 1994; A Escobar, ‘Power and visibility: development and the invention and management of the Third World’, Cultural Anthropology, 3(4), 1988, pp 428–443; Payne, ‘The global politics of development’; and Payne, The Global Politics of Unequal Development, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

17 G de Lacharrière, ‘Identification et statut des pays “moins développés”‘, Anuuaire Français de droit international, 17, 1971, p 464, at http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/afdi_0066-3085_1971_num_17_1_1657, accessed 31 August 2010, p 464, author's translation.

18 Guillaumont, Caught in a Trap, p 19.

19 M Fagen, Letter from Melvin M Fagen, Director of the Affairs and Trade Development Division of the Economic Commission for Europe, to Raúl Prebisch, SG of unctad, 25 February 1964, p 1, collected from the Archives Unit of the UN Library in Geneva, Palais des Nations, July 2011, emphasis added. Within the UN, the terms ‘less-developed’ and ‘developing’ were used interchangeably at the time.

20 de Lacharrière, ‘Identification et statut des pays “moins développés”‘, p 464.

21 Guillaumont, Caught in a Trap, p 20.

22 Fagen, Letter from Melvin M Fagen, p 1.

23 de Lacharrière, ‘Identification et statut des pays “moins développés”‘, p 468.

24 Ibid, p 469.

25 United Nations, Resolution on the United Nations Development Decade, New York, 19 December 1966, p 42.

26 uncdp, Report on the Second Session, Economic and Social Council, Official Records, Forty-Third Session, Supplement No 7, New York, 10–20 April 1967, p 27, at http://www.un.org/esa/policy/devplan/reportstoecosoc.htm, accessed 30 August 2010.

27 G77, Charter of Algiers, First Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77, Algiers, 10–25 October 1967, at http://www.g77.org/doc/algier∼1.htm, accessed 15 September 2010.

28 unctad, Special measures to be taken in favour of the least developed among the developing countries, TD/17/Supp1, New Delhi, 1 February 1968, pp 9, 10.

29 Ibid, p 11, emphasis in the original.

30 Resolution 24 (II).

31 United Nations, ‘The least developed and land-locked developing countries’, in Major policy developments since the second session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development: Report by the unctad secretariat (TD/101)—Proceedings of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, third session, Santiago de Chile, 13 April–21 May 1972, p 60.

32 MC Smouts, ‘La notion de pma: une genèse difficile’, in Les pays les plus pauvres: quelle coopération pour quel développement?, Paris, Institut Français des Relations Internationales (ifri), 1981, p 51; and UN, ‘The least developed and land-locked developing countries’.

33 de Lacharrière, ‘Identification et statut des pays “moins développés”‘, p 465.

34 B Hoekman & Ç Özden, Trade Preferences and Differential Treatment of Developing Countries: A Selective Survey, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3566, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005, p 6.

35 uncdp, Report on the Fourth and Fifth Session, Economic and Social Council, Official Records: Forty-Seventh Session, New York, 17–21 March 1969 and 7–16 May 1969, p 13, emphasis added, at http://www.un.org/esa/policy/devplan/reportstoecosoc.htm, accessed 30 August 2010.

36 Ibid, p 3.

37 Ibid.

38 unctad, Special Measures in Favour of the Least Developed Among the Developing Countries—Identification of the least developed among the developing countries, Note by the unctad Secretariat, TD/B/269, Trade and Development Board, Ninth Session, Geneva, 26 August 1969, p 22.

39 unctad, Draft Report of the Group of Experts on Special Measures in Favour of the Least Developed among the Developing Countries, TD/B/AC.9/Conf. Room Paper 1, Trade and Development Board, Geneva, 27 November 1969.

40 This group met from 24 November to 5 December 1969 in Geneva. unctad, 1969; G Hartshorn, Progress Report sent to Janez Stanovnik, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe, 1969, collected from the Archives Unit of the UN Library in Geneva, Palais des Nations, July 2011; and UN, ‘The least developed and land-locked developing countries’, in: Proceedings of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development – third session, Santiago de Chile, 13 April to 21 May 1972’, UN, New York, pp 60–68.

41 Resolution 2564 (XXIV) of 13 December 1969.

42 unctad, Special Measures in Favour of the Least Developed Among the Developing Countries—Identification of the least developed among the developing countries, p 37.

43 UN, ‘The least developed and land-locked developing countries', p 62.

44 uncdp, Report on the Sixth Session, Economic and Social Council, Official Records: Forty-Ninth Session, Supplement No 7, New York, 5–15 January 1970, at http://www.un.org/esa/policy/devplan/reportstoecosoc.htm, accessed 30 August 2010, p 19.

45 UN, ‘The least developed and land-locked developing countries’, p 62.

46 Resolution 2724 (XXV) of 15 December 1970.

47 United Nations, Resolution on identification of the least developed among the developing countries, 1970, at http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/349/89/IMG/NR034989.pdf?Open Element, accessed 1 September 2010, p 64.

48 uncdp, Report on the Seventh Session, Economic and Social Council, Official Records, Fifty-First Session, Supplement No 7, New York, 22 March–1 April 1971, at http://www.un.org/esa/policy/devplan/reportstoecosoc.htm, accessed 30 August 2010, p 12.

49 Ibid, emphasis added.

50 uncdp, Report on the Seventh Session, p 16.

51 TG Weiss, T Carayannis, L Emmerij, R Jolly, ‘The 1970s: creativity confronts geopolitics’, in UN Voices: The Struggle for Development and Social Justice, UN Intellectual History Project, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005, p 237.

52 TG Weiss, ‘Transcript of interview of Jack I Stone—New York, 12 February 2002’, in The Complete Oral History Transcripts from UN Voices (audio cd), UN Intellectual History Project, New York, 2002, p 53; and J Stone, interview with the author, 4 October 2011.

53 uncdp, Report on the Seventh Session, p 16, emphasis added.

54 Ibid, p 15, emphasis added.

55 Ibid, pp 21, 22.

56 UN, Resolution on Identification of the least developed among the developing countries, 1971, at http://www.unitar.org/resource/sites/unitar.org.resource/files/document-pdf/GA-2767-XXVI.pdf, accessed 1 September 2010, p 52.

57 Stone, interview with the author, 4 October 2011.

58 de Lacharrière, ‘Identification et statut des pays “moins développés”‘, pp 471, 472.

59 Weiss, ‘Transcript of interview of Jack I Stone’, p 52.

60 Guillaumont, Caught in a Trap, p 19.

61 S Dell, ‘Draft article prepared by Sidney Dell, Director of the New York office of unctad, to Stein Rossen, Deputy sg of unctad, 6 November 1972’, collected from the Archives Unit of the UN Library in Geneva, Palais des Nations, accessed September 2011, unnumbered pages.

62 Smouts, ‘La notion de pma’, p 52.

63 Ibid.

64 Interview, 4 October 2011.

65 Jan Pronk, interview with the author, 5 July 2011.

66 Stone, interview with the author, 21 February 2012.

67 Smouts, ‘La notion de pma’, p 53.

68 Stone, interview with the author, 4 October 2011.

69 Pronk, interview with the author, 5 July 2011.

70 Vienna Institute for Development and Cooperation, International Workshop on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)—Report, Report Series 2/89, Vienna, 1990, p 3.

71 Dell, ‘Draft article prepared by Sidney Dell’.

72 Smouts, ‘La notion de pma’, p 53, author's translation, emphasis added.

73 Weiss, ‘Transcript of interview of Jack I Stone’, p 57.

74 Stone, interview with the author, 4 October 2011.