São Tomé and Príncipe

I had never heard of São Tomé and Príncipe, until yesterday.

Turns out it is a small island nation off the west coast of Africa. São Tomé is one of the main islands, Príncipe the other. Population of 220,711 currently, according to my favourite site worldometers.info

The islands' economy is based on plantation agriculture and the main crop is

cacao, ready for your bedtime drink.

Colonised by the Portuguese in 1470 and previously uninhabited - at least by humans - they gained independence in 1975 and became a member of the United Nations in September of that year. They are included in the UN's Least Developed Country category, although scheduled to graduate to the next level in 2024. 

Another thing I didn't know! Least developed countries (LDCs) are low-income countries confronting severe structural impediments to sustainable development. They are highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks and have low levels of human assets.

There are currently 47 countries on the list of LDCs which is reviewed every three years by the Committee for Development (CDP).

LDCs have exclusive access to certain international support measures in particular in the areas of development assistance and trade. [source: un.org/development]

There is a triennial review of graduation thresholds, establishing minimum criteria for an LDC to graduate to a Developing Economy category. The next review is in 2021 and the thresholds for that are:

Gross National Income (GNI) per capita: $1,222 or above
(Income-only: $2,444 or above)
Human Assets Index (HAI): 66 or above
Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI): 32 or below

If anyone is still reading at this point, here are some of the other 46 LDCs at the moment and their scheduled graduation dates:

Vanuatu (2020)
Angola (2021)
Bhutan (2023)
Solomon Islands (2024)

There's so much more to this; I'm still learning.

So how did you come across São Tomé and Príncipe yesterday? I hear you ask.

It's about football. Isn't it always. I was looking for a long odds bet for the weekend and there they were, playing away to one of the strongest teams in African Cup of Nations, South Africa. At odds of 35/1.

Boa sorte meus amigos!