14th Core Group Meeting Reviews Draft Vulnerability Profile of UNCTAD

Participants speaking during the 14th meeting of the core group on LDC Graduation

The 14th meeting of the core group constituted for dealing with the LDC graduation issues of Bangladesh was held on 25 November 2020. Project Director of SSGP and Wing Chief of the Development Effectiveness wing of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) Mr. Farid Aziz chaired the meeting.

The meeting reviewed and provided some initial assessment about the draft Vulnerability Profile of Bangladesh prepared by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Bangladesh met the criteria for graduating from the least developed country status back in March 2018. In the current trend, the country is expected to meet the criteria for the second consecutive time during the next triennial review in February 2021.

It is notable that once a country meets the graduation criteria for the first time, UNCTAD is mandated to prepare a vulnerability profile on the identified country which is to be considered by the Committee for Development Policy at its subsequent triennial review.

Subsequently, UNCTAD prepared a draft vulnerability profile on Bangladesh and shared it with the Government of Bangladesh. In this context, the core group meeting was organized to carry out some initial review and analysis on the draft Vulnerability Profile.

It was decided during the meeting that the members of the core group would thoroughly review the draft vulnerability profile and would provide their written feedback on the document by 26 November 2020.

It was also decided that the feedback coming from the core group members would be compiled and sent to UNCTAD as initial feedback on the draft vulnerability profile by 27 November 2020.