Through the decision of the General Assembly to hold a comprehensive ten-year review Conference of the Almaty Programme of Action decided in 2003, the Second United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) was held in Vienna from 3 to 5 November.

At the conference, participants from governments of LLDCs, transit developing countries and donor countries, UN and other international organizations and the private sector came together to decide upon the new development agenda for the next decade.

The main outcome of this conference was the adoption of a Vienna Programme of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries for the period 2014-2024 with six clearly defined priorities, aiming at accelerating sustainable development in LLDCs. This document stresses the need to strengthen North-South and South-South partnerships and to ensure sustainable economic growth. LLDC countries must develop their role as land linked countries. Mr Gyan Chandra Acharya, USG and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, underlined that LLDCs are, despite some improvements in the last decades, still in need of support for developing their infrastructure.

The conference included 4 high-level interactive thematic round-tables and 18 side events organized by various stakeholders.

Together with Austria and GRID-Arendal, UNEP Vienna office organized a side event titled: “How to facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in Landlocked Mountain Countries” The Post-2015 Development Agenda/SDGs dimension. The event, which was held in the format of a panel discussion and moderated by Mr Jan Dusik, Director and Regional Representative of UNEP, Regional Office for Europe, was opened by H.E. Mr Gyan Chandra Acharya. The event brought together stakeholders from the private and public sector, in particular mountainous LLDCs countries to: present and discuss challenges and opportunities (also for the private sector) related to sustainable and resilient infrastructure measures, by drawing from experiences and best-practices in selected key areas including transport, energy and tourism; and renew countries’ commitment to SMD and discuss ways to foster further partnership between the various mountain regions in the global (LLDC, Post-2015 process and other platforms) and inter-regional (including sharing experiences and best practices with other mountain regions such as the Alps and Carpathians) context.

More information: harald.egerer@unvienna.org