What are the LDCs?

Three criteria, developed by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, are used to determine which countries belong to the LDC group. The first one is the low-income criterion, which is based on a three-year average estimate of the GDP per capita. The GDP per capita must be under US$1,035 to graduate from that group. The second criterion is the human resource weakness criterion, which involves the Augmented Physical Quality of Life Index (APQLI) lased on nutrition, health, education and adult literacy indicators. The final criterion is the economic vulnerability criterion, which involves the Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI) based on indicators of the instability of agricultural production, the instability of exports of goods and services, the economic importance of non-traditional activities (share of manufacturing and modern services in GDP), merchandise export concentration, and the handicap of economic smallness.

LDC Fund
The seventh Conference of Parties (COP 7) of the United Nations Framework Countries on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Marrakech, Morocco in November
2001 agreed to create a new fund for the least Developed Countries (LDC) called the "LDC Fund". This fund was to be set up with voluntary contributions from the developed (Annex I) countries and administered by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The fund is to support adaptation to climate change in the LDCs. The initial activities to be supported from the LDC Fund were the preparation of National Adaptation Programs of Action
(NAPA) in each LDC. Each LDC was to prepare its respective NAPA in a participatory process as per the guidelines provided by the LDC expert group. The NAPA reports will provide a priority list of activities and projects for adaptation to climate change to be implemented on an urgent basis with further financial support from the LDC Fund as well as other funding sources.