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LDC Future Forum Banner. Credit: OHRLLS

By Rabab Fatima
UNITED NATIONS, May 8 2026 (IPS)

The future of the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) will be shaped by a critical choice they make today- strategic investment in their youth. Rich in human potential, the young people in LDCs embody ingenuity, resilience and ambition. With the right opportunities, they can transform challenges into opportunities and put their countries strongly on track to sustainable development.

In the 44 LDCs, more than 60 per cent of the population is under 25. That is more than 315 million young people – innovators, entrepreneurs and problem-solvers – in a world being reshaped by technology, climate pressures and shifting economic realities. Their energy, creativity and ambition represent an extraordinary opportunity not only for national development, but for global prosperity and stability.

The question is simple: will we act with the urgency this moment demands? In May 2026, governments, development partners, private sector leaders, researchers and young changemakers will convene in Helsinki for the Fourth LDC Future Forum, under the theme “Transforming LDCs by Empowering the Youth Population through Education, Innovation, and Inclusive Growth.”

Rabab Fatima, USG and High Representative, OHRLLS. Credit: OHRLLS

This Forum is more than a ceremonial gathering. It is a strategic moment—one that calls for decisive action to translate youthful potential into concrete progress.

Opportunity is expanding—but unevenly

The global economy is evolving at speed. Artificial intelligence, digital platforms, green technologies and geopolitical shifts are reshaping how we live and work. By 2030, an estimated 170 million new jobs will be created worldwide, even as 40 per cent of core workplace skills are transformed.

Youth in LDCs are ready to be part of this future. Already, they demonstrate remarkable entrepreneurial initiative: nearly 70 per cent are engaged in self employment, compared to about 50 per cent in other developing countries.

Yet opportunity remains deeply uneven. Tertiary enrolment in LDCs stands at just 11 per cent. Fewer than a quarter of graduates specialize in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Millions of young people—especially girls and rural youth—remain excluded from quality education, digital connectivity and formal employment. Without urgent and targeted investment, demographic strength risks becoming a demographic strain.

The DPOA: Investing in youth as a development imperative

The Doha Programme of Action (DPoA) is unequivocal: investing in people – especially youth – is central to sustainable development and smooth graduation from the LDC category.

It places strong emphasis on education, skills and science, technology and innovation (STI) as engines of structural transformation. Critically, it advances concrete deliverables, including the establishment of an Online University for LDCs, designed to expand access to quality, affordable higher education – particularly in STEM fields. It also promotes digital learning, innovation ecosystems, and stronger linkages between education systems and labour market needs.

The Fourth LDC Future Forum will focus squarely on these priorities. It will advance practical solutions to close skills gaps, expand digital learning, strengthen innovation hubs and promote inclusive growth models that leave no young person behind.

Inclusion must be intentional

True transformation cannot happen if opportunity is accessible only to a few.

Gender gaps in education, skills acquisition and labour force participation continue to hold back progress. The digital divide—between countries, communities and genders—threatens to widen existing inequalities unless deliberately addressed. Inclusive growth requires inclusive design: policies and investments that actively reach girls, marginalized youth and those in rural and underserved areas.

By placing equity at the centre of youth empowerment, LDCs can ensure that growth is not only faster, but fairer—and therefore more sustainable.

A shared responsibility

No country can undertake this transformation alone. Governments must lead by prioritizing youth in national development strategies and aligning education with future economic needs. Development partners must scale up predictable, high quality financing for education, skills and digital infrastructure. Academia must help generate evidence based solutions. And the private sector must play a central role—by investing, mentoring, innovating and creating decent jobs.

The LDC Future Forum exists to forge these partnerships. Through rigorous research, policy dialogue and multi stakeholder collaboration, it aims to deliver actionable recommendations that will inform both national action and the 2027 Midterm Review of the Doha Programme of Action.

The choice before us

History will judge this generation not by the challenges we faced, but by the choices we made. We can allow structural barriers and underinvestment to hold back millions of young people—or we can unlock the dynamism that resides within them.

Empowering youth is not a long term aspiration. It is the fastest, most reliable path to sustainable growth, resilience and global stability.

The message from Helsinki must be clear: invest in young people now – and they will transform their countries, and our shared future.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Rabab Fatima is United Nations Under Secretary General and High Representative for LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS

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The annual Europe Day celebrations mark the anniversary of what is widely regarded as the founding act of the European Union. 

After World War II, coal and steel were considered indispensable due to their role in economic growth and defence. Head of the French Planning Committee, Jean Monnet, and French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, believed that pooling these resources would not only be financially strategic, but would consolidate European peace and unity.

Schuman presented this concept during a press conference on 9 May 1950 at the Quai d’Orsay. The text, known as the Schuman Declaration; outlined that ‘solidarity in production’ would make another war ‘not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible’.  It stated that ‘world peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it.’

In April 1951, Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg signed the Treaty of Paris, which created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). After entering into force in 1952, the ECSC facilitated a common market and freedom of movement of coal and steel between the six signatories. Notably, this was the first supranational organisation in Europe.

The ECSC was comprised of a High Authority that had decision-making competencies (the foundation of what is currently the European Commission), as well as a Special Council of Ministers, a Court of Justice, and a Consultative Committee.

The ECSC was also supported by a Common Assembly, which had 78 members (selected by national parliaments), supervisory power, and the right to dismiss the High Authority.

As the ECSC Common Assembly had the autonomy to write its rules of procedures, it unanimously decided, at its plenary session in June 1953, to allow the creation of political groups. With this decision, it became the world’s first international assembly organised in political groups (other international assemblies established after World War II were largely structured by grouping nations).

In 1958, the Common Assembly was renamed the European Parliamentary Assembly, , and Schuman was elected as its President.

Now, 76 years later, it is the European Parliament’s 10th legislative term; and it is made up of 720 Members across eight political groups; representing over 450 million citizens in 27 Member States. Between 2014 and 2019, 396 proposals were presented under the ordinary legislative procedure, all of which involved Parliament.

The peace, strength and unity, and integration that Robert Schuman championed several decades ago are values that continue to characterise the EU’s priorities and actions today. From an initiative to integrate industry to the world’s largest supranational democracy, the 9 May celebrations commemorate the inception of an idea that changed Europe forever.

Links:

• Robert Schuman
• Schuman Declaration, May 1950
• The ECSC Common Assembly’s decision to create political groups Writing a new chapter in transnational parliamentary history
• Impact of the ECSC Common Assembly on the politics, negotiation and content of the Rome Treaties
• Happy Birthday European Union: Europe Day, 9 May

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