Three years after the world began its epic fight against COVID-19, the Least Developed Countries, already facing severe structural obstacles to sustainable development and highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks, find themselves caught in the middle of a growing wave of crisis, uncertainty, climate chaos and profound global injustice.
“Systems are overloaded or non-existent, from health and education, to social protection, infrastructure and job creation. And this is only getting worse, ”he said this Sunday on General secretary of the UN, António Guterres, at the opening of the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5), which takes place in the Qatari capital from March 5 to 9.
Guterres stressed that the global financial system, created by rich countries to serve their own interests, is grossly unfair for the least developed countries, which must pay interest rates that can be eight times higher than those of developed countries.
“Today, 25 developing economies spend more than 20% of government revenue on debt service alone”, he exemplified, emphasizing that the least developed countries need “a support revolution” that contemplates three points: immediate assistance, reform of the world financial system and adaptation to climate change.
Attendance
The head of the UN argued that, first of all, the most vulnerable countries in the world require urgent support to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and explained that this includes allocating at least $500 billion a year to developing countries, as well as 0.15% to 0.20% of the Gross Domestic Product of the industrialized economies to Official Development Assistance. In addition, tax evasion and illicit financial flows must be avoided.
“No more excuses. I call on development partners to contribute these resources and further the achievement of the goals of the Doha Agenda for Action,” he said, referring to the landmark plan to renew engagement between least developed countries and their development partners. , including the private sector, civil society and governments at all levels.
Reform of the financial system
Second, Guterres continued, it is necessary to reform the global financial system and the Bretton Woods bodies.
He explained that this means “expand contingency financing and integrate disaster and pandemic clauses into debt instruments.”
“Multilateral development banks must transform their business model to attract increased flows of private finance to least developed countries”, he specified and added that “new ways of common sense must be found to measure the economies of the countries, such as loan criteria that go beyond the Gross Domestic Product”.
This woman has no means to feed her children in Afghanistan. One in three people in the least developed countries lives below the poverty line.
Evolution in climate support
The least developed countries are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change despite the fact that they only contribute to it with a small amount of gases greenhouse effect.
To provide them with the necessary support, Guterres urged developed countries to fulfill their promise to give 100 billion dollars to developing countries, simplify access to climate finance, operationalize the loss and damage funddoubling funding for adaptation, replenishing the UN-backed Green Climate Fund, and providing early warning systems to the entire world’s population within five years.
With these and other vital goals in mind, the Secretary-General reminded delegates that he will convene a Climate Ambition Summit next September at the UN headquarters in New York to turn words into action and “provide climate justice to those on the front lines of the crisis.”
Keep promises
“The era of broken promises must end now,” Guterres insisted. “Let’s put the needs of the least developed countries where they belong: first in our plans, in our priorities and in our investments”.
Since the start of the pandemic, the 46 least developed countries have suffered from a lack of resources to fight the emergency and a spiraling debt that has delayed its progress towards development. Notwithstanding the efforts to deal with these circumstancesone in three people in these nations lives in extreme poverty.
“I am sure that we all want to fulfill our promise to achieve the 2030 Agenda and transform the economies of the least developed countries,” said Csaba Kőrösi, president of the general Assembly of the UN, seconding the approach of the Secretary General.
Kőrösi added that it is imperative that development partners deliver on promises to help least developed countries to overcome their vulnerabilities.
“If we strengthen true partnerships and harness technology and innovation, we can still achieve our goals by 2030,” he said, warning that this will require high-impact decisions and transformative actions, including relying on science in decision-making, mobilizing solidarity, improving governance standards, and understanding the global commons.
“This progress will not be easy, but honestly I don’t see a better option for humanity”, Kőrösi concluded.
Over the next few days, more than 130 leaders and delegates from around the world will take the floor in the general debate to exchange views on how to collectively address shared challenges and find meaningful solutions for the least developed countries.
What is the Doha Agenda for Action?
In March 2023, the Doha Program of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2022-2031 to ensure that the most vulnerable states were once again high on the international agenda.
The Program includes six key focus areas:
- Investing in people in the least developed countries: Eradicate poverty and develop capacities to leave no one behind
- seize the power of science, technology and innovation to fight multidimensional vulnerabilities and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
- support the structural transformation as an engine of prosperity
- Improve the international trade and regional integration of the least developed countries
- Tackle climate change, environmental degradation, recovering from the pandemic and increasing resilience
- mobilize the international solidarity, revitalized global partnerships and innovative tools and instruments
The full implementation of the Doha Agenda for Action will help least developed countries address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its associated socio-economic impacts, get back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and address the challenges of climate change.
