Even though the two-day conference was sponsored by the UN, Turkey's move should be seen as the extension of the strategies for opening up to the long-ignored African, Latin American and Pacific countries. The group of LDCs includes 50 countries with a total population of more than 600 million. The basic criterion for inclusion in the group is an income per capita of not more than $750 for three consecutive years; however, countries that meet this condition but have a population of more than 75 million are not included in this category. As could be easily predicted, with 35 countries including Niger, the poorest in the world, the African continent takes the lead in the group, followed by Asia with 10, Oceania with five and the Americas with one country (Haiti). For this reason, the term Fourth World usually calls Africa to mind.
LDCs or Fourth World countries are countries that, according to the United Nations, exhibit the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development with the lowest Human Development Index ratings of all countries in the world. A country is classified as an LDC if it meets three criteria based on low income (three-year average national income per capita of less than $750, which must exceed $900 to leave the list); human resource weakness (based on indicators of nutrition, health, education and adult literacy); and economic vulnerability (based on instability of agricultural production, instability of exports of goods and services, economic importance of non-traditional activities, merchandise export concentration and the handicap of small economic size and the percentage of population displaced by natural disasters). Countries may "graduate" out of the LDC classification when indicators exceed these criteria.
LDCs generally suffer conditions of extreme poverty, ongoing and widespread conflict (including civil war or ethnic clashes), extensive political corruption and lack of political and social stability. The form of government in such countries is often authoritarian in nature and may take the form of a dictatorship, warlordism or a kleptocracy. The majority of LDCs are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Despite having made impressive progress that can't even be compared to that of LDC countries, Turkey has assumed a humanistic mission within which it shares its experience of constant growth in the last five years with those countries. In parallel of the LDC conference, Turkey invited honorary consulates of Turkey in those countries to ensure that they are informed about the development strategies that Turkey has pursued during this period of striking success.
Moreover, getting the opportunity to learn what the participating high-level UN authorities think on underdevelopment and its reasons alone is a big gain. For instance, it is imperative to ponder the remarks by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, who expressed his views on why the LDCs failed to maintain a sustainable growth and noted that because the economic growth in those countries did not create employment, poverty did not lose its impact and finally stressed that one out of two people in the LDCs earned less than one dollar a day.
A speech by the World Trade Organization Assistant Director Valentine Rugbawiza, who underlined that the incentives provided in developed countries to support the agriculture sector were harmful for LDCs, should also be noted. Moreover, the words of UN Commission on African Economy Executive Secretary Abdoulie Jameh, who recalled that the contribution of LDCs to the world economy remained at 0.6-0.7 percent despite the fact that they constituted 12 percent of the world population, should be taken into serious consideration.
It is impossible not to agree with UNDP Chairman Kemal Derviş, who noted that unless new resources are provided instead of loans, even existing resources will disappear in the long term.
Furthermore, all should heed the words of UN 61st General Assembly Chairman Haya Rashid al-Khalifa, who stressed that the globalization process negatively affects LDCs and that those countries do not benefit from the opportunities created by it.
It is not the first time that Turkey has shown interest in the problems of LDCs. The interest and attention by the Turks and Turkey in those countries in recent times is more visible than ever. While Turkish civil society organizations launched campaigns to provide humanitarian aid for these countries, the Turkish volunteer education movement has opened a number of schools on the African continent. Meanwhile, it should also be noted that the official development assistance Turkey supplied to these countries had amounted to $750 million by 2006. Estimates indicate that the actual figure is much higher due to unofficial civilian assistance.
