End the hypocrisy and finally act? The United Nations Secretary General on Saturday accused the global economic system of benefiting only rich countries, at the opening of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) summit in Doha.
Antonio Guterres asked developed countries for aid of some 500 billion dollars a year for the poorest, “stuck in vicious circles” which prevent the reform of their economies and the refloating of education and health systems.
“Economic development is difficult when countries lack resources, are crippled by debt and are still struggling with the historical injustice of an uneven response to Covid-19,” he said as the poorest countries have repeatedly denounced an unfair distribution of vaccines, concentrated in Europe and North America.
“Fighting a climate catastrophe that you did not cause is a challenge when the cost of capital explodes” and the financial assistance received is “a drop in the ocean”, added Mr. Guterres.
“Our global financial system was designed by rich countries, largely for their benefit,” he said. “Cashless, many of you are being squeezed out of capital markets by predatory interest rates.”
Leaders and representatives from 33 African countries, 12 Asia-Pacific countries and Haiti gathered in Doha 50 years after the UN created the LDC category, supposed to bring special international support to its least developed members. more vulnerable.
Saturday’s summit precedes Sunday’s start of the LDC General Conference, which will focus on getting out of extreme poverty.
But while an action plan in favor of LDCs was adopted at the UN General Assembly last year for the period 2022-2031, no pledge of financial contribution is foreseen in Qatar, during of a meeting postponed twice by the coronavirus.
Afghanistan and Burma are absent, for lack of governments recognized by the members of the UN.
And no head of state or government from a rich country was expected in the Qatari capital, sitting on a colossal reserve of gas and whose wide avenues are traversed by luxurious air-conditioned 4X4s, as were the football stadiums during the recent World Cup.
“Fossil energy giants reap enormous profits when millions of people in your countries cannot put food on the table”, denounced the general secretary.
Rich countries have failed to deliver on their promises to give between 0.15 and 0.20 percent of their gross domestic product to LDCs, stuck “in the perfect storm to perpetuate poverty and injustice”, he said. raised.
And their situation worsened further with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, pitting two food producers essential to the planet against each other and disrupting international distribution channels.
Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera, who is chairing the summit, denounced the “broken promises” of the international community. The aid “is not a favor or an act of charity” but a “moral responsibility”, he said.
The President of East Timor Jose Ramos-Horta for his part castigated “the extreme insensitivity of interest rates of raptors”. LDC debt has more than quadrupled in a decade to reach $50 billion in 2021.
“Sudan considers the debt obstacle as an emergency that must be managed in the international context,” said General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, de facto leader of the country since his putsch in October 2021.
The gap between the richest and the poorest has only widened. According to the World Bank, the average salary in Afghanistan does not exceed a few hundred dollars a year, against 65,000 dollars in the United States. Barely half of the poorest have electricity and one in five people in these countries have access to the internet, according to the UN.
Since 1971, the number of LDCs — originally 24 — has nearly doubled. Thanks to this designation, they enjoy commercial privileges and supposedly easier access to aid and other funding.
Tiny Bhutan should “emerge” this year from this category. Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Angola, Sao Tome and Principe and the Solomon Islands could follow by 2026.
03/04/2023 12:53:05 – Doha (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
