Greetings from Istanbul!



view of istanbul



May 7, 2010

Least Developed Countries Conference

Day #1

Istanbul, Turkey

 For the next week I will be covering the Least Developed Countries conference for the Loretto Community and Feminist Task Force. This is a very important UN conference which addresses issues specifically related to least developed countries. A country is classified as an LDC by meeting the following three factors: economic vulnerability, low-income (per capita income less than $905) and human resource weakness. This will be the Fourth UN conference on the LDCs; the last conference took place in Belgium in 2001. Currently, there are 48 LDCs with a majority of them on the continent of Africa. The purpose of this conference is to assess the results of the 10-year action plan from the Belgium conference and adopt strategies for the sustainable development of the LDCs into the next decade.

 

Today was the first day of the LDC conference; the day started out with a panel and introduction to the conference. We first heard from Dr. Karamen, Chairmen of Doctors Worldwide. In his speech he explained that “we need to seek ways to fulfill our responsibility of the LDCs and that the problems faced by them are problems that face humanity as a whole.” We heard from various organizers of the conference, followed by a dialgue on the objective of the conference. During this session there was lively debate with various people from all over the world. The participants questioned the role of the LDCs and the outcomes of the conference.



this morning's meeting



One woman from a labor organization in the D.R. of Congo passionately asked the panel, “What type of action can we take after the conference? We are a drop of water in the ocean, less than 1% of NGO’s are represented here. How can we mobilize the largest number of people? Grants run our country; no one wants to listen to the people! We must begin to mobilize now and examine our role in how to end inequality for the LDCs.”

Tomorrow the official events start, and I look forward to participating, meeting people, and learning about peoples’ struggles. During my time here I look forward to examining what we at the Loretto Community can do to address international injustices.