The Republic of the Maldives has called for the revamping ofthe Smooth Transition Process for the graduation of countries from Least Developed Country statuswhile drawing attention to the vulnerabilities of island nations. Speaking in the Second Committeeof the General Assembly of the United Nations today, Ambassador Ahmed Sareer stated thatthough “Maldives had success in pioneering new measures to mitigate the effects of graduation ... thequestion of whether those efforts were enough has not been answered in the positive.”
Ambassador Sareer warned the United Nations that the transition process is in danger of becoming aburden for graduating nations rather than a boon. In view of this, the Maldives has been pushing forreforming the graduation process for over a decade. These efforts led to the creation of the UnitedNation’s Ad Hoc Working Group on the smooth transition strategy for countries graduating from thelist of least developed countries. Being an active participant in this group, Maldives has taken a leadensuring the process of graduation is smooth, where graduating countries work hand in hand with theirdonor community to join the group of developing nations.
With the Maldives being a small island developing state, Ambassador Sareer also noted that it isextremely vulnerable to external shocks. Additionally its development costs are often prohibitively highdue to its disbursed geographic nature. In order to overcome these vulnerabilities, Maldives advocated acollaborative approach where national deficiencies are taken into account.
