Telling the trade stories of least developed countries

Having achieved independence in 2002 and boasting a population of only 1.3 million people, Timor-Leste is the youngest and the second least-populated country in Southeast Asia. Despite this, the country has achieved significant progress in terms of human development, mainly driven by revenue from offshore oil and gas. According to the World Bank, the proportion of Timorese living in poverty declined from 50% in 2007 to an estimated 42% in 2014. Surplus oil and gas revenues go into a sovereign fund, the Timor-Leste Petroleum Fund, which was established in 2005. According to the World Bank's Timor-Leste Economic Report 2021, the country has also achieved significant declines in child and maternal mortality rates, increases in youth literacy, and improvements in energy and transport infrastructure.

Centrally located on the African continent, Chad shares a border with six countries. Chad is Africa’s fifth-largest country and its largest landlocked country. Due to its geography, Chad is reliant on neighbouring countries – such as Cameroon and Sudan – for access to seaport infrastructure. Chad’s history of conflict and its dependency on oil have resulted in a number of social, political, and economic challenges that disproportionately impact its poorest citizens. While the country’s main exports are oil and gold, agriculture is a crucial driver of the economy, with the majority of Chadians relying on subsistence farming and livestock rearing. Gum arabic, sesame, cattle, and cotton are Chad’s primary agricultural exports.

From extreme storms to coastal flooding, the least developed countries (LDCs) are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. More than two-thirds of climate-related disaster fatalities worldwide have occurred in these nations. This is why environmental sustainability is a cross-cutting issue that has been central to the trade capacity-building agenda of the EIF. The environment has not only been a cross-cutting priority for the EIF since the beginning of Phase Two, but it is also embedded in the EIF's strategic plan. Moreover, an indicator has been established to ensure that impact measurement considers environmental dimensions.

Since 2013, the year after Vanuatu's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) has invested approximately USD 6.5 million in Vanuatu to strengthen institutional capacity for trade, revive the tourism sector and enhance trade facilitation.

The partnership between The Gambia and the EIF began with country-led evidence‑based research and analysis to identify its pro-poor trade priorities. The resulting policy-guiding document – the 2007 Diagnostic Trade Integration Study (DTIS) – identified diversification and domestic production of goods and services in the areas of tourism, groundnuts and other agriculture products and fishing as sectors with the potential to spur sustainable development.

Climate change also impacts trade. Extreme weather events can reduce productivity, increase costs and supply chain disruptions in the short term and alter countries' comparative advantages and specialization in long term. The WTO World Trade Report 2022 finds that a rise of 1°C has been found to reduce the annual growth of developing countries' exports by between 2.0 and 5.7 percentage points.