On 22 February 2021, H.E. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, will participate via videoconference in and deliver a speech at the High-Level Opening Session titled “From Istanbul to Doha-towards a new decade of partnerships for LDCs” of the Africa Regional Review Meeting in preparation of the Fifth United Nations Conference on LDCs.

Convened every ten years in accordance with UN General Assembly resolutions, UN Conferences for the LDCs determine the steps to be taken within the scope of the global sustainable development agenda regarding LDCs. The last United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV), where the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) for LDCs was adopted, was held in Istanbul on 9-13 May 2011. IPoA charted out the actions and strategies to be followed until 2020 both by LDCs and the international community for the sustainable development of the latter.

The Africa Regional Meeting aims to review the implementation of IPoA in Africa, which is home to 33 of the 46 LDCs.

The Fifth United Nations Conference on LDCs (LDC-V) is planned to take place in Qatar in the beginning of 2022. Turkey supports the preparatory process of LDC-V.