Kenya will miss out on the Sh32 billion donor commitments expected at the world trade conference that starts today in Nairobi after it was promoted from the level of Least Developing Countries (LDCs).
The country was dropped from the United Nations list of LDCs that has 48 countries, among them Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. A key achievement from the Tenth Ministerial Conference (MC10) for African countries is the completion of the only Aid-for-Trade programme for LDCs.
The second phase will begin in January next year. This emerged at a pledging conference for the replenishment of the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) – a multi-donor trust fund – that was held last evening at the onset of MC10, which is expected to attract about 7,000 delegates. “The EIF is seeking donor commitments of between US$274 and $320million over seven years to integrate LDCs into the global trading system in a way that contributes to poverty reduction and sustainable development,” a statement from EIF said.
The trust fund provides financial and technical support to build trade capacity among the 48 LDCs and three recently graduated countries. The most recent graduates out of the LDC category up to 2015 are Botswana, Cape Verde, Maldives and Samoa. Other countries that stand to benefit from the fund include Burundi, Togo, Malawi, Benin and Djibouti.
The United Nations Economic and Social Council reviews the list of LDCs every three years, based on recommendations by the Committee for Development Policy.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to open the conference today at 3pm in a session that will also see him address the ministerial conference. The outcome of the conference will be dubbed the “Nairobi Declaration”. President Uhuru Monday called for the strengthening of the WTO to enable it to fulfill its mandate effectively. He observed that the Fourth China Round Table, which he opened in Nairobi yesterday, was a valuable mechanism for strengthening the rules-based multilateral trading system.