02 Jul 2024

Botswana is excited at the prospect of hosting the Third United Nations (UN) Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), proposed for December in Gaborone.

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi expressed the sentiments yesterday, during a courtesy call from the UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, Ms Rabab Fatima.

Dr Masisi said the country’s leadership was committed to ensuring that all necessary preparations took place ahead of the conference.

He further said while Botswana was going to have general elections in October, a new government would be formed at least by the second week of November, and a seamless transition would take place, ensuring that existing preparations continued for the December conference.

The Third UN Conference on LLDCs, initially scheduled for Rwanda in June, but owing to logistical scheduling challenges moved to December in Gaborone, will explore solutions and forge partnerships to address challenges faced by LLDCs.

For her part, Ms Fatima said the UN Secretary-General Mr Antonio Guterres, who had only been to Botswana once on holiday, was looking forward to the conference, and was grateful that Botswana had offered to host the event.

Having met with the principals of UN agencies in Geneva, Switzerland, she said at least 35 had indicated their intention to be among the thousands of participants at this year’s conference.

Ms Fatima said the conference, which would be akin to the UN General Assembly meeting in Gaborone, would see all the 193 member states of the UN invited at head of state level, as well as UN agencies. 

“It will be a huge event. We will discuss various aspects of the new Programme of Action for the next 10 years, including how climate change affects landlocked countries, and come up with a Gaborone Declaration to guide our policies going forward,” Ms Fatima said.

Landlocked Developing Countries are emerging economies that lack direct access to coastal ports, which often leads to increased transportation trade costs as they rely on transit countries and also face delays in the movement of goods as well as reduced Foreign Direct Investment.

The world’s 32 LLDCs, currently chaired by Botswana, include 16 African countries, among them eSwatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Others are 12 Asian states including Afghanistan, Armenia, Bhutan, Kazhakstan, Mongolia and Nepal; two European countries; Moldova and North Macedonia as well as two South American states, Bolivia and Paraguay.

In 2014, the UN adopted the Vienna Programme of Action for LLDCs, covering 10 years, from 2014-24 aimed at addressing the constraints of lack of territorial access to the sea and remoteness to world markets and specified priorities including transit policy issues, transport infrastructure and trade facilitation. Ends