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On Saturday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticized the wealthy nations of the world and the world’s energy giants for crippling impoverished countries with “predatory” interest rates and high fuel costs.
At a summit of the world’s poorest countries, Guterres urged wealthier nations to donate $500 billion annually to aid those “trapped in vicious cycles” that thwart efforts to grow economies, advance healthcare, and raise standards of living.
Since 2021, the coronavirus pandemic has caused two postponements of the meeting of the 46 Least Developed Countries (LDC), which typically takes place every ten years.
Because their governments are not recognized by UN members, Afghanistan and Myanmar, two of the world’s poorest nations, are not participating in the conference in Doha.
No top official from one of the major economies in the globe was present.
Guterres launched an immediate attack on the way wealthy nations handle the less developed during the summit’s opening remarks.
When nations are resource poor, in debt, and still contend with the historical injustice of an unfair COVID-19 response, he said, economic growth is difficult.
Longtime gripes of the LDCs have been that they did not receive a fair portion of the Covid vaccines that were targeted at Europe and North America.
It is difficult to stop a climate catastrophe that you had nothing to do with causing when the cost of capital is so expensive and the financial assistance received “is a drop in the bucket,” according to Guterres.
While millions of people in your nations struggle to put food on the table, fossil fuel industry behemoths are making enormous profits.
According to Guterres, the world’s poorest countries are falling behind in the “digital revolution” and that the conflict in the Ukraine has only driven up the cost of their food and fuel.
False Claims
According to him, wealthy nations primarily benefited from the design of the world banking system.
Because of predatory interest rates, many of you are barred from capital markets because you lack liquidity, the UN chief said.
Rich countries had broken their pledge to LDCs to donate 0.15 to 0.20 percent of their GNI.
A “perfect storm for perpetuating poverty and injustice” has poorer states enmeshed, according to Guterres, who claimed that LDCs need “at least” $500 billion annually to surmount their issues, develop sectors that create jobs, and pay off debts.
Richer nations have also promised to create hundreds of billions of dollars to aid poorer states in fighting climate change, but they have fallen short of their promise. The UN will “continue pressing for the resources already promised,” according to Guterres.
Lazarus Chakwera, the president of Malawi and summit organizer, criticized the “broken pledges” made by the international community.
Aid, according to him, is a “moral obligation,” not a favor or an act of charity.
To assist nations experiencing food crises due to drought and high prices, a system of food stockholding will be established under plans known as the Doha Programme of Action.
Additionally, the plan calls for a center for investments to aid LDCs in obtaining foreign financing and for lower interest rates to lessen the burden of their debts.
Bhutan will “graduate” from the LDC category by 2026, joining Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Angola, Sao Tome and Principe, and the Solomon Islands as the other six nations.
They will, however, progressively lose their trade and aid privileges. As they climb the wealth ladder, Guterres warned that they run the risk of becoming “victims of the cruelest sleight-of-hand trick — support networks vanishing before their eyes.” He also predicted that they will require assistance.
