Can International Trade Help Africa’s Least Developed Countries Achieve SDG-1? Navarro Pabsdorf, Rosa Margarita Martínez Alcalá, Concepción Moral Pajares, Encarnación Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Least Developed Countries (LDCs) African countries International trade In order to reduce poverty and achieve Goal 1 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, countries’ foreign trade flows must be a driving force for productive activity, as proposed by the WTO-led (World Trade Organization) Aid for Trade initiative. This work analyzes the evolution of international trade in goods and services between Africa’s Least Developed Countries and customers and suppliers from other countries between 2005 and 2015, based on the information provided by UNCTAD and the World Bank. The results confirm a greater degree of trade openness and especially an increase in service imports. Overall, the data show that the purchases made in the international market have a greater marginal effect on GDP than sales, leading to the conclusion that changes in trade policy are needed, at both international and national level. Actions should be aimed at ensuring that the growing integration of these economies in the world trade system does not result in continued deficits in the trade balance but, on the contrary, does contribute to GDP growth and poverty reduction. 2020-07-21T11:03:56Z 2020-07-21T11:03:56Z 2020-06 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Navarro-Pabsdorf, R. M., Martínez-Alcalá, C., & Moral-Pajares, E. (2020). Can International Trade Help Africa’s Least Developed Countries Achieve SDG-1?. Sustainability, 12(11), 4470. [DOI: 10.3390/su12114470] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/63082 10.3390/su12114470 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI