to farmers, development and application of appropriate technologies, education and
training.
40. We support the launching of the second United Nations Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA-ll) for the 1990s. The programme should emphasize the establishment of a sound industrial base with strong linkages to agriculture, so as to ensure the maximum exploitation of domestic raw materials. Priority must be accorded to the development and promotion of small- and medium-scale enterprises and to other indigenous resource-basedindustries and to the encouragement of informal
sector activities.
41. We also support the launching of the second United Nations Transport and Com munications Decade in Africa (UNTACDA-ll) for the 1990s. The programme should focus especially on the development of indigenous capabilities in the construction and maintenance of all modes of transport and communication infrastructures to facilitate the distribution and marketing of goods and services. In particular multi modal transport systems must be developed to facilitate the transit trade of land
locked and island LDCs in Africa.
42. In view of LDCs enormous energy potential, efforts must be intensified to explore and exploit energy resources, in particular renewable sources of energy.
43 We reiterate our commitment to the eradication of illiteracy, the provision of primary health care for all, appropriate measures to provide family planning and
population control as an integral part of overall development policies, the full integra tion of women in development and to popular participation in the development process.
2. International support measures
44. The difficult international environment in the 1980s worsened the resource problems of the African LDCs. Unfavourable factors included: inadequate ODA flows contraction in demand for, and low prices of primary commodities, resulting
m extremely low export earnings; mounting protectionism; inflexibility of the compen satory financing facility mechanisms for export shortfalls and increased external debt-service obligations. International support in these areas during the 1990s should be flexible and appropriate to the broader development efforts of the LDCs.45. The international community is urged to support fully and effectively the compre hensive action programme for the LDCs for the 1990s and to provide financial assis tance in amounts and on terms corresponding to immediate and long-term development needs. Donors should accept the aid targets, to be agreed upon at the second United Nations Conference on LDCs, as the basic minimum to ensure the successful
implementation of the programme.
46. As a matter of priority, the international community should (i) support LDCs to attain internal and external balance in their economies; (ii) help in maximizing capacity utilization of the productive economic units; (Hi) support efforts to increase per capita food production; and (iv) in view of the energy problems facing LDCs provide financial and technical assistance for the research, exploration and development
of energy resources.
47. Relevant multilateral institutions should consider new mechanisms and arrange ments for mobilizing increased financial transfers to the LDCs. Balance-of-payment and budget support must not be used to impose policy conditions which involve social and political costs that hinder the broader development objectives.
48. We recognize that some African LDCs have entered into policy arrangements with the IMF extending to the early 1990s and we urge the Fund to undertake a constant review of the principles on which its conditionally rests in such a way as to reflect the social, economic and political priorities of the relevant LDCs in the context of the African Alternative Framework for Structural Adjustment Programmes for
Socio-economic Recovery and Transformation".
49. AH donor countries are urged to take steps to provide official development assistance (ODA) to the LDCs fully in the form of grants and to provide loans on terms at least as concessional as those of the IDA. Urgent steps should also be taken by donor countries to provide ODA, loans and grants on an untied basis and without discrimination, to improve the quality and effectiveness of aid and to eliminate the timelag between aid commitment and disbursements.
50. With respect to commercial policy measures, the developed countries should take actions aimed at enhancing the export trade of the LDCs, in particular by: improv ing the Generalized System of Preferences treatment for their exports with the objec tive of providing duty-free access to such products; using more flexible regulations on the rules of origin for such exports; eliminating non-tariff barriers to the LDCs exports and facilitating their participation in multilateral trade negotiation agreements
and arrangements.
51 In the area of compensatory financing of LDCs export shortfalls developed
countries should improve boTh bilateral and multilateral Stabex schemes for the .mport
of primary commodities from African LDCs.
52. Special arrangements should be considered under IMF compensatory financing to provide full coverage of export shortfalls, to subsidize interest payments on outstanding drawings and to allow a repayment period of 10 years with a grace per.od
of 5 years.
53. In the context of South-South economic co-operation and in the spirit of collective self-reliance, developing countries in a position to do so should provide assistance
to the LDCs in the following areas:
(a) Preferential treatment, in the context of the Global System of Trade Preferences, to imports of goods produced by the African LDCs;
(b) The development of production potential of food, energy and other
resources, including manufactures;
(c) The provision, on preferential terms and conditions and at minimum costs, of the results of scientific and technological development adapted to the development needs of the least developed countries; and
(d) Promoting and expanding joint ventures involving the transfer of equipment and technology, through long-term bilateral agreements or special arrangements.
54. The international community should provide substantial financial and material assistance to those LDCs susceptible to major man-made and natural disasters with a view to complementing their national efforts to respond to such events.
C. AH-anqements for the second United Nations Conference on LDCs
55. We mandate the EGA and OAU secretariats, in collaboration with UNCTAD, to establish on the agenda of the second United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries a framework for interregional negotiations among all LDCs and to inform LDCs in the other regions of this aspiration. In particular, the meetings of Govern mental Experts from Donor Countries and Multilateral and Bilateral Financial and Technical Assrstance Institutions with representatives of LDCs, to be held in Geneva, from 22 to 31 May 1989; the UNCTAD Intergovernmental Group on LDCs (Preparatory Committee on the second United Nations Conference on LDCs), Geneva, 26 March to 6 April 1990; and the second United Nations Conference on LDCs, to be held in Paris, from 3 to 14 September 1990, will provide an excellent opportunity to adopt a common position on the appropriate national and international policies and measures to accelerate the development process in the LDCs during the 1990s.
IV. Conclusions
56. We, the Ministers responsible for economic development and planning of African least developed countries, once again, strongly reaffirm that the primary responsibility for the overall development of our countries remains with our own Governments.
We are determined to continue our efforts in making the necessary adjustment measures so as to restore growth and development.
57. We call on the international community, however, to honour its commitment.
In this regard, the immediate action programme proposed for 1991-1995, as a compo nent of the decade programme of the 1990s, represents the minimum package required to enable our countries to recover adequately and to lay the foundations for self-sustained economic growth and development. The measures involved are not beyond the means of the international community and we are confident that its response
will be positive- ^
58. Finally, we firmly believe that the success of any strategies and policies arising from the second United Nations Conference on LDCs for the 1990s will depend on mutually reinforcing commitments and the dedication both of the international com munity and the LDCs themselves, to create an environment for adequate recovery and for self-sustained economic growth and development. The primary concern in such development co-operation efforts must be to raise the living standards of the
population as a whole.
AimexV
APPEAL BY THE ECA CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE FOR ECONOMIC