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Ten and a half years after the second LDC conference, the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-III) was held in 2001 in Brussels. 

The Conference adopted the , which was adopted eight months after Millennium Summit and the  by Member States. The Brussels Programme of Action, following up on the goals set in the Millennium Declaration, set the overarching goal of making substantial progress toward halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and suffering from hunger by 2015; and also the goal of promoting the sustainable development of the LDCs.

The Programme of Action for LDCs for the Decade 2001-2010 aimed to improve living conditions in the LDCs and provided a framework for partnership between LDCs and their development partners to accelerate sustained economic growth and sustainable development, end marginalization by eradicating poverty, inequality and deprivation in these countries, and enabling them to integrate beneficially into the global economy.

Additional priorities included developing human and institutional resources, removing supply-side constraints, enhancing productive capacity, accelerating growth, and expanding the participation of LDCs in world trade, global, financial and investment flows.

After LDC-III, the United Nations Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States was by the UN General Assembly to ensure effective follow-up, implementation, monitoring and review of the implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action.

Today, the serves 91 vulnerable UN Member States, all of which are facing their own unique sets of challenges in achieving sustainable development and internationally agreed goals. The Office mobilizes international support and advocate in favour of the three vulnerable country groups, raises awareness about the economic, social and environmental potential that exists in these countries, and ensures that the pressing needs of the 1.1 billion people who live in them remain high on the international agenda.