The Least Developed Countries: Key Challenges and the Way Forward for Korea's Development Cooperation

Digitalization has disrupted the way products are distributed. With this came an influx of products that depend on network effects and thrive in a winner-takes-all market environment (Schilling 2002). A similar trend is being observed in many frontier technologies, including applications in the so-called ‘gig economy’, which will create winners and losers. Simultaneously, governments are experiencing an erosion of their tax base (Peng 2016). These resources are desperately needed to tackle the widening digital divide, combatting the lack of electricity, and providing internet access to the poorest (International Energy Agency 2017). The current strategy of the United Nations (UN) shows promise. However, the way the UN currently operates has not been adapted to meet the challenges of a digital economy. This is often observed in global-to-local applications, especially when generalized frameworks fail to adapt to communities with different characteristics and needs. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a guiding light to rally stakeholders around specific key issues and opens the field for collaboration. The UN is in a unique position to convince all participants to engage in negotiations, to mobilize substantial resources, and has the best chance to get concessions on restrictive systems such as the intellectual property arrangements (Haugen 2010). Systems need to be in place to facilitate technology transfers and capacities need to be built up to give the least developed countries (LDCs) a chance of catching up. The UN needs to bring international institutions, governments, civil society, academia, and the private sector to the table to enable LDCs to determine their own future (Moyo 2010). The UN should introduce more heuristic analysis tools to bring more diverse partners into workable collaborations to address these challenges. A new leadership system should also be introduced to provide clearer direction and autonomy to their contributors.

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Development of Trauma and Disaster Response in Togo, Africa

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine ◽

10.1017/s1049023x19002577 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 (s1) ◽

pp. s120-s120

Author(s):

Odeda Benin-Goren ◽

Nimrod Aviran ◽

Iris Adler ◽

Oran Zlotnik ◽

Yossi Baratz

Keyword(s):

International Development ◽

Trauma Care ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Disaster Response ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Development Cooperation ◽

Least Developed Countries ◽

African Countries ◽

Trauma Unit

Introduction:The project was provided under the auspice and support of the Israel Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Togo, one of the smallest and least developed countries in West Africa, has a population of ~7.9 million. About 65% of its population lives in rural areas. Due to the lack of medical resources, Togo suffers from health problems including those related to trauma and mass events. In May 2017, a trauma and disaster team came to Togo to train the medical team in the new trauma unit, donated and built by the MFA. The unit was built in the Atakpame Regional Hospital (ARH), located 160km north of the capital, Lomé. ARH serves one million inhabitants, mostly from rural areas.Methods:The training included lectures, simulations, drills, case studies, bedside teaching, and operation of medical technologies.Results:Following the training, it was recommended to continue the program and to move forward with advanced training. Following the team’s recommendations, MASHAV decided to expand the program and to provide a multilateral project to Togo and ten other West African countries within five months after the first training ended. Twenty participants (mostly senior doctors) were chosen from ten Western African countries and brought to Lomé. The participants joined a two-day Trauma and Disaster Preparedness seminar. Following the seminar, they were moved to Atakpame to join the local team and the facilitators, to visit the trauma unit, and to learn about it as a model for trauma care that can be modified to the capabilities of the local facility.Discussion:Lessons learned and recommendations from those two projects were brought to the MFA that will try to develop more training and cooperation models to help and establish better trauma care and disaster response, supported by the Israeli team.

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Volume and Territorial Distribution of the Czech Republic’s Official Development Assistance Flows to Least Developed Countries

Review of Economic Perspectives ◽

10.2478/revecp-2021-0005 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 79-102

Author(s):

Eva Kovářová

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Czech Republic ◽

Development Assistance ◽

Donor Country ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Official Development Assistance ◽

Development Cooperation ◽

Least Developed Countries ◽

The Czech Republic ◽

External Resources

Abstract Official Development Assistance (ODA) is considered one of the most important external resources of finance that can contribute to sustainable development in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The Czech Republic, as an official donor country, should spend on ODA, with respect to the EU and national targets, at least 0.33% of its GNI by the year 2030. Eradication of poverty in the context of sustainable development belongs to the long-term priorities of the Czech foreign development cooperation, and thus the Czech Republic considers some LDCs, which population is more likely to live in extreme poverty, the priority partner countries. Paper evaluated fundamental trends of the Czech Republic’s ODA flows to LDCs; compared them with the trends identified for the collective flows of all DAC members and for the flows of its four selected members (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia). Identified trends of Czech ODA flows showed clearly that Czech Republic did not meet official commitments regarding the volume of ODA and that level of fragmentation of the ODA flows to LCDs was quite high when these trends were examined during the period 2000–2018. However, the Czech Republic’s development cooperation policy did not differ markedly from the policies of the other four ODA donors. Any significant differences were identified when the fundamental trends of Czech ODA flows were compared with those ones identified for Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

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Quantification of Vitamin A in Fortified Rapeseed, Groundnut and Soya Oils Using a Simple Portable Device: Comparison to High Performance Liquid Chromatography

International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research ◽

10.1024/0300-9831/a000154 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 83 (2) ◽

pp. 122-128 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Cécile Renaud ◽

Jacques Berger ◽

Arnaud Laillou ◽

Sylvie Avallone

Keyword(s):

High Performance Liquid Chromatography ◽

Liquid Chromatography ◽

Vitamin A ◽

High Performance ◽

Vitamin A Deficiency ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Portable Device ◽

Least Developed Countries ◽

Control Food ◽

Assay Precision

Vitamin A deficiency is still one of the major public health problems in least developed countries. Fortification of vegetable oils is a strategy implemented worldwide to prevent this deficiency. For a fortification program to be effective, regular monitoring is necessary to control food quality in the producing units. The reference methods for vitamin A quantification are expensive and time-consuming. A rapid method should be useful for regular assessment of vitamin A in the oil industry. A portable device was compared to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for three plant oils (rapeseed, groundnut, and soya). The device presented a good linearity from 3 to 30 mg retinol equivalents per kg (mg RE.kg- 1). Its limits of detection and quantification were 3 mg RE.kg- 1 for groundnut and rapeseed oils and 4 mg RE.kg- 1 for soya oil. The intra-assay precision ranged from 1.48 % to 3.98 %, considered satisfactory. Accuracy estimated by the root mean squares error ranged from 3.99 to 5.49 and revealed a lower precision than HPLC (0.4 to 2.25). Although it offers less precision than HPLC, the device estimates quickly the vitamin A content of the tested oils from 3 or 4 to 15 mg RE.kg- 1.

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EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP: ASPECTS AND APPROACHES

GBAMS- Vidushi ◽

10.26829/vidushi.v6i01.9677 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 6 (01) ◽

Author(s):

JAVED ALAM SHEIKH

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Substantial Contribution ◽

Economic Empowerment ◽

World Population ◽

Least Developed Countries ◽

The Road ◽

Road Map ◽

The World ◽

The Status

Almost 50 per cent of the world population is constituted by the women and they have been making substantial contribution to socio-economic development. But, unfortunately their tremendous contribution remains unrecognized and unnoticed in most of the developing and least developed countries causing the problem of poverty among them. Empowering women has become the key element in the development of an economy. With women moving forward, the family moves, the village moves and the nation moves. Hence, improving the status of women by way of their economic empowerment is highly called for. Entrepreneurship is a key tool for the economic empowerment of women around the world for alleviating poverty. Entrepreneurship is now widely recognized as a tool of economic development in India also. In this paper I have tried to discuss the reasons and role of Women Entrepreneurship with the help of Push and Pull factors. In the last I have also discussed the problems and the road map of Women Entrepreneurs development in India.

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