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Document begins: WATER AND THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (LDCS) REPORT PREPARED FOR THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF THE HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE LDCS, LLDCS AND SIDS B Y SALEEMUL HUQ, HANNAH REID AND LAUREL MURRAY INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT Draft February 2003 Summary The LDCs are a group of 49 countries considered to be the world's poorest as they have a per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) under US$900 and they have very low levels of capital, human and technological development. These 49 countries have a combined population of 614 million, which is equivalent to just over 10% of the world's population, but their share of the world's GDP is less than 1%. During the 1980s the real GDP per capita growth rates of the developing countrie s was only double that of the LDCs. In the 1990s, the real GDP per capita in the LDCs grew at only 0.9% per year, but if Bangladesh is excluded, this figure becomes only 0.4% per year. For the other developing countries the real GDP per capita growth rate was 3.6% per year during this period (four times higher than that of the LDCs). This indicates that the gap in average ...