This project aims to strengthen the capacity of Mauritius, Seychelles, Guinea-Bissau and Jamaica to formulate and implement integrated and coherent national planning and policy that promote social inclusion, macroeconomic stability, effective governance, protection of the environment and mobilizes stakeholders. Based on integrated planning methodologies and the principles of blue and green economy, the focus will be to support the development of economies that are resilient, diversified and have strengthened productive capacities. Environmental vulnerabilities and resilience building, including sustainable forest management, will receive special attention. The project will deliver a program of support that builds on DESA’s existing capacity development activities in integrated recovery planning, economic and environmental modelling, governance and institutional arrangements for policymaking, coordination and implementation, forests and climate financing and SIDS specific support. It will include analysis, training, advice, and stakeholder involvement activities to strengthen national capacities and processes for planning, including establishment of appropriate governance arrangements for formulation and implementation of integrated national development planning and responses to crises, such as those posed by the war in Ukraine and the COVID pandemic. Project impact would be evidenced by the incorporation and use of DESA tools, methods and approaches into national development plans, pandemic recovery strategies and other policies and strategies for the achievement of the SDGs.

The project aims to help five Least Developed Countries (LDCs) (four in Asia, one in the Pacific) increase their chances of achieving structural economic and social progress toward and beyond graduation from LDC status. This, for the two implementing organizations, involves: (i) provision of country-specific analytical material on the implications of LDC graduation; vulnerability and resilience-building; and smooth transition strategies; (ii) relevant advisory services to policy makers; and (iii) action to help project recipients and LDCs in general understand and use the export-related new requirements issued by trading partners.
The economies of graduating LDCs, while demonstrating forms of structural economic progress, often remain little diversified and dependent on a small number of products or commodities for export. The transformation these countries aim to achieve or pursue implies a range of structural economic changes, notably from lower to higher levels of productivity and value addition. Most graduating countries with an agenda for such progress will need post-LDC support measures, possibly new forms of special treatment after LDC status.
The context of reclassification from LDC status is an opportunity, for these countries, to step up their plea for alternative support measures after graduation, with a view to maintaining their momentum of progress. In short, making the most of LDC benefits while these are still available, then achieving a smooth transition to post-LDC status with some alternative support measures is a broad agenda of these States, an agenda they expect UNDESA and UNCTAD to help them bring to fruition. The project offers the two organizations and the five recipients a practical framework for achieving this goal.
Key stakeholders under the project are government officials in the ministries associated with LDC graduation and its implications: Foreign Affairs, Planning, Finance, Trade and Commerce. The project will enhance the capacities of selected officials within these ministries to: (i) better understand the implications of graduation from LDC status; (ii) incorporate policies aimed at mitigating vulnerability and building resilience into planning documents; (iii) formulate and enact smooth transition strategies; and (iv) keep up with changing international trade requirements.