Rwanda is getting ready to host the third UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) to be held in Kigali, in June 2024.
The meet seeks to tackle specific issues affecting these nations, officials noted, on Friday, June 2, while the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Donatille Mukabalisa, received the UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative, Rabab Fatima, at the former’s office in Kigali.
The two officials discussed the preparation for the UN Conference.
ALSO READ: Being landlocked country
Fatima said this is the first time that the Conference will be coming to Africa and hosted by Rwanda.
"It is also a very unique situation because the current Chair of LLDCs group is also from Africa, Botswana. So, between the leaderships of Botswana and Rwanda I think it will be an excellent opportunity to highlight the particular priorities and challenges that Africa LLDCs face," Fatima said.
Such meetings of LLDCs groups, she said, take place every 10 years and bring anywhere between 5,000 and more people.
Participants include leaders from all 193 UN member states, as well as UN leaders and UN entities, and other international organisations, "and we also expect this to be a multi-stakeholder meeting where we expect participation from private sector, civil society, youth, and parliamentarians.”
"I believe it will be a fairly large meeting,” she said.
Referring to Rwanda’s ability to receive such an event, she said the country has very good facilities and has also been hosting very important international events, citing the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2022).
ALSO READ: Kigali remains Africa's second most preferred city for hosting meetings
Mukabalisa outlined the Parliament's role in the LLDCs conference in Kigali.
She said: "We will collaborate with all concerned public institutions in the preparations, and as people's representatives, we expect the Conference to address issues of landlocked countries.”
She pointed out that landlocked countries have many common issues and this is an opportunity for them to meet and find relevant solutions to them.
Why the conference?
According to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the conference aims to undertake a comprehensive review of the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action for LLDCs for the decade 2014-2024.
This programme is an outcome of the second UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries which took place in Vienna, from November 3 to 5, 2014.
It aims to formulate and adopt a renewed framework for international support to address the special needs of LLDCs and to strengthen partnerships between them and transit countries and their development partners.
Under the Vienna Programme of Action, it was agreed that the national policies of the landlocked developing countries and international support measures during the decade 2014-2024, would focus on specific goals and objectives.
These include promoting unfettered, efficient and cost-effective access to and from the sea by all means of transport, on the basis of freedom of transit, and other related measures, and in accordance with applicable rules of international law.
Others are reducing trade transaction costs and transport costs and improve international trade services through simplification and standardisation of rules and regulations, thereby contributing to the promotion of rapid and inclusive economic development; and developing adequate transit transport infrastructure networks and complete missing links connecting landlocked developing countries.