Financing for Sustainable Development Report Launch - Press Conference (25 March 2021)

The United Nations of Earth reporting on this issue: "Financing for Sustainable Development Report Launch - Press Conference (25 March 2021)"
The topics: Press Conference by Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, on the launch of the Financing for Sustainable Development Report. ---- The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed development gains for millions in poor countries, creating an even more sharply unequal world, according to a new UN report released on Thursday (25 Mar).  According to the Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2021 issued by the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing, the global economy has experienced the worst recession in 90 years, with the most vulnerable segments of societies disproportionately affected, pointing out that some 114 million jobs have been lost, and about 120 million people have been plunged back into extreme poverty. The highly uneven response to the pandemic has widened the already yawning disparities and inequities within and between countries and peoples, according to the 60 international agencies that authored the report. And while an historic USD 16 trillion in stimulus and recovery funds released by governments worldwide have helped to stave off the worst effects, less than 20 per cent of it was spent in developing countries. By January, all but nine of the 38 States rolling out vaccines were developed countries.   Before COVID-19, around half of least developed and other low-income countries were under threat of, or already experiencing, debt distress. Coupled with falling tax revenues, that has subsequently sent debt levels soaring. In the world’s poorest countries, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could be pushed back another 10 years, warns the report. The report says that immediate action is needed to address widening inequalities, rebuild better, and prevent the development reversal.   “Today's new report puts forward important recommendations; It calls on governments to invest in people’s social protection, sustainable infrastructure and green jobs. It also calls on the international community to support the poorest and most vulnerable countries with debt relief and other measures to ensure liquidity, including the allocation of additional special drawing rights,” Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said in presenting the report to the press in New York. The report also suggests providing ultra-long-term fixed interest financing to developing countries and realigning capital markets with sustainable development, by removing short term incentives along the investment chain.  “United Nations is strongly committed to helping ensure that all our countries can emerge on equal footing from this crisis and have an equal chance of building a safer, healthier, more equal and sustainable future,” Mohammed said.


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