New UN Report Says "Poor Countries Need to Rethink Development Model"

A new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says the poorest countries in the world "are bearing the brunt of the global economic crisis" and that their governments need to rethink the development model used for the last 30 years.

"The Least Development Countries Report 2009" says:

"In recent decades, many LDCs have severely reduced the role of government in promoting development. Yet the current crisis has 'exposed the myth of self-regulating markets' and neo-liberal economic policies have also not succeeded in tackling other problems such as bottlenecks in production, chronic deficits and shortages of skills and knowledge among the labour force.

"The roles of the state and the market must be rebalanced, and many affluent countries have already started shifting to include a much bigger role for the state in economic management, especially through fiscal stimulus packages."

The report recommends that poor countries emphasize greater collaboration between the private sector and the state as well as increase technological capabilities.

(Muchas gracias to Sergio Stone, International, Foreign, and Comparative Law Librarian at the Stanford Law School for calling this to my attention.)