Ahead of a major United Nations conference on the world’s poorest countries in Turkey next week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the international community to step up efforts to help the nearly one billion people who in those nations lift themselves out of poverty.

With a major United Nations conference on the world’s poorest nations just weeks away, Member States today began another round of negotiations aimed at achieving a new action plan to advance the economic and social development of these vulnerable countries.

The General Assembly held a day-long debate today on investment and financing for the world’s least developed countries (LDCs), with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon highlighting economic diversification, investment in agriculture, and fair trade as the three planks needed to accelerate progress.

The number of people living in extreme poverty in the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) has been on the rise despite higher national incomes in some of those States, a senior United Nations official said today, calling for a review of the current development approaches.