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Coordinating within the government and with other stakeholders in preparation for graduation is important to ensure all relevant counterparts are well informed and have opportunities to provide inputs to the preparation of the smooth transition strategy. Several line ministries may have responsibilities in areas related to graduation, including (but not limited to) ministries of trade/commerce, foreign affairs, industry, and environment. Here are some examples of how countries have managed this coordination:

• Bangladesh: early in the process, the government established a national task force and a core group of government entities (LDC core group) involved with graduation, designated focal points in different ministries which conducted assessments of impacts within their areas of work, held discussions about graduation in several forums, included the issue of graduation in planning exercises and in the strategy for SDG implementation, and elaborated a project entitled ¡°Support to Bangladesh¡¯s Smooth and Sustainable Graduation from LDC¡± to conduct special studies related to the impacts of graduation, invest in further outreach, and other functions. Different institutions had been approached to analyse issues of particular concern, such as the effect of graduation on TRIPS. It later formed a National Committee on LDC Graduation (NCG) chaired by the Principal Secretary to the Honorable Prime Minister. The Committee involves all relevant Ministries and other organizations from the public and private sectors. It is intended as a platform to support a sustainable graduation with stakeholder involvement. Under its direction, seven thematic subcommittees were formed to address core issues: market access; intellectual property rights; other WTO issues; investment, domestic market development and export diversification; internal resource mobilization and tariff rationalization; smooth transition strategy and branding Bangladesh abroad.
• Vanuatu: In March 2016, the Council of Ministers (COM) endorsed the establishment of a National Coordinating Committee (NCC) comprised of various relevant stakeholders to coordinate the development of a smooth transition strategy. It also created a Secretariat to the NCC to support the process and facilitate consultations with national stakeholders. Vanuatu's smooth transition strategy can be read .
• Bhutan: Bhutan's is preparing for graduation in the context of its 12th five-year development plan. National level consultations were undertaken in the preparation process to discuss, prioritize and build consensus on the socio-economic issues, goals and objectives of the plan. LDC graduation and the SDGs were considered in this context. Comprehensive consultations were carried out between 2016 and 2018 with all levels of government, ministries, sectors, local governments, parliamentarians, communities at the grassroots level across the nation, and all other potential stakeholders including civil-society organizations through participatory planning approaches, processes and engagement. In April 2021 Bhutan created an LDC task force which includes key sectors related to µþ³ó³Ü³Ù²¹²Ô¡¯²õ graduation; Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Statistics Bureau and the National Environment Commission.
• Lao PDR: the LDC National Steering Committee, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Foreign Affairs, manages the graduation process. The Committee includes the ministries of Planning and Investment, Finance, Industry and Commerce, Agriculture and Forestry, Health, Education and Sport, Natural Resources and Environment, Public Works and Transport, and receives support from the Permanent Representatives to the UN in New York and Geneva. A special taskforce was created to support the monitoring of the smooth transition strategy, including, in addition to the above, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Lao Women¡¯s Union, Lao Statistic Bureau, Development Research Institute.
• Nepal: Nepal created an LDC Steering Committee to provide directions on LDC graduation matters. The committee is chaired by the Vice-Chairperson of the National Planning Commission and includes representatives of line ministries including Finance; Foreign Affairs; Industry, Commerce and Supplies; and Education, Science and Technology. The steering committee also includes non-governmental stakeholders such as private sector organizations. Additionally, the National Planning Commission has a division that coordinates activities related to LDC graduation and liaises with the CDP regarding monitoring.
• Solomon Islands: preparation of the smooth transition strategy was led by the Cabinet with the Ministry of National Planning and Development Coordination. Consultations were held across the government and with provincial representatives, private sector, and development partners.
• Angola: Angola had a National Consultative Committee for LDC Graduation, which it later combined with its Committee on the Sustainable Development Goals so that the graduation roadmap was mainstreamed into the National Plan and budget.

Engagement with trade and development partners is important to secure a smooth transition strategy. Though most development partners continue to support countries after graduation, it is important to anticipate any possible changes, for example in the type of ODA that will be provided after graduation or the terms of concessional finance; and to be able to work with trade partners to mitigate negative impacts from the end of LDC-specific market access schemes.

Institutionally, countries might engage with development and trade partners through existing coordination mechanisms or may decide to establish a specific consultative mechanism related to graduation. For example, Cabo Verde established a specific donor group to support graduation (see below) while Bhutan integrated the issues related to graduation within the mechanisms already established for support from donors to the 12th five-year development plan and the SDGs.

Here are some examples of how countries approaching graduation have engaged with development and trade partners:

• µþ³ó³Ü³Ù²¹²Ô¡¯²õ smooth transition from LDC category is aligned to its five-year development plans. Bhutan maintains regular Round Table Meetings with its development partners. A meeting to take stock of progress on the 12th Five-Year Plan and the SDGs in September 2021 was seen as an opportunity to reinforce partnerships and inform the way forward for the period after graduation. Graduation has also discussed in the context of the annual Country Programme Board (CPB) meetings with heads of Resident UN agencies and Non-Resident agencies. Furthermore, Bhutan has engaged with partners individually. For example, during the 9th European Union-Bhutan Annual Consultations in December 2020, the EU reaffirmed that its assistance
  to Bhutan would continue beyond graduation, and encouraged Bhutan to ratify the conventions that would enable them to apply for GSP+.
• Samoa graduated from LDC status in 2014. It began working on a smooth transition in 2009. In 2011, it agreed with its development partners on a Joint Policy Matrix, which became the basis for the delivery of aid once graduation became effective. To prevent the abrupt loss of preferential market access under the DFQF (duty-free, quota-free) arrangement granted to LDCs, the government negotiated with some of its export partners including the USA and Japan the continuation of DFQF schemes beyond graduation. Under Everything but Arms, a transitional period of three years was automatically allowed after graduation for access of Samoa¡¯s exports to the EU market. In addition, Samoa continued to receive preferential bilateral market access to Australia and New Zealand. As a small island developing state (SIDS) that faces severe and permanent economic and environmental challenges, Samoa has been actively engaged with the international community and in constant dialogue with its development partners to ensure that any LDC-specific concessions lost as a result of graduation could legitimately be retained on SIDS-specific grounds. Successive reports to the CDP on Samoa's transition are available here and the latest is available here.
• Cabo Verde graduated in December 2007. In preparation for graduation, the Government set up a donor support group (Grupo de Apoio ¨¤ Transi??o - GAT) for the transition, to adjust to the eventual phasing out of the support measures associated with LDC membership. In June 2007, GAT adopted a declaration supporting Cabo Verde¡¯s socioeconomic transformation agenda. Additionally, a budget support group (BSG) composed by the Government and participating multilateral and bilateral donors was created in 2005 to align and harmonize donor support around the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy. Cabo Verde benefitted from the normal 3-year transition period for the EU's Everything-But-Arms scheme, and at the end of this period, in 2010, the EU further extended the transition period until January 2012. Cabo Verde is now a beneficiary of the GSP+ scheme. Monitoring reports on Cabo Verde's transition are available here.
• Maldives graduated in 2011. It advocated for the LDC group in issues such as the CDP's monitoring and the WTO TRIPs waiver. It was instrumental in the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly which extends for a period of three years the support for travel to attend General Assembly sessions. The last monitoring reports for the Maldives is available here (PDF).

Stakeholder consultation, beyond the government and development and trade partners, is important given that graduation may have consequences for exporters that benefit from LDC-specific preferential market access schemes or other trade-related support measures, or organizations that rely on LDC-specific technical and financial assistance. Even when those impacts are not of a scale that puts the country at risk of reversal, it is important to raise awareness and prepare for the changes to come, mitigating the impacts where possible. Stakeholders can help inform the action to mitigate any negative inputs, take advantage of the momentum created by graduation, and define the nature of, and vision behind, the smooth transition strategies.

In preparing for graduation and their smooth transition strategies:

• Bangladesh established stakeholder consultative mechanisms;
• Bhutan held nation-wide stakeholder consultations;
• Lao PDR mapped the stakeholders and involved them in validation of the strategy;
• Nepal collected feedback from stakeholder on a draft strategy during consultations and charged its Implementation and Coordination Committee to engage with stakeholders (along with government entities and development partners) for joint implementation of the strategy;
• Solomon Islands involved provincial stakeholders in the validation of the strategy and in implementation;
• Vanuatu held stakeholder consultations in each of the six provincial centers and involved them in the validation of the strategy.

The relevant stakeholders need to be identified for each country context but could include:

• National, local or sectoral business associations, associations of small and medium enterprises, artisans and traders, chambers of commerce, export associations, and representative entrepreneurs;
• trade unions, workers¡¯ associations or cooperatives, women workers¡¯ associations;
• non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (in particular those working with funding from LDC-specific mechanisms), associations representing specific groups of stakeholders; think tanks and academia.