Realising the Trade Ambitions of the Doha Programme of Action for LDCs: A Commonwealth Perspective

The United Nations’ Doha Programme of Action (DPoA), which runs from 2022 to 2031, renews the global community’s commitment to tackling the challenges hindering faster growth and development in the world’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs). The DPoA has similar growth and trade-related goals and targets as its predecessor, the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA), which was implemented from 2011 to 2020. However, most LDCs, including several in the Commonwealth, did not meet a number of these goals in the past decade (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2022). In the rapidly changing global economic landscape, with concerns about a worldwide recession and multiple interrelated food, energy and debt crises, significant changes in the trade and development paths of LDCs are needed to realise the DPoA’s aspirations and drive meaningful economic transformation.

This issue of Trade Hot Topics quantifies the gaps between the historical levels of actual trade and economic growth in LDCs and the growth levels needed to achieve the targets set by the DPoA. It also examines some of the key levers and drivers of trade and investment to realise these ambitions.