New York September 29 – Government leaders and international organizations joined the United Nations to seek solutions for the current virus-inflicted devastation and plan for the post-pandemic era.
One million people have died from the coronavirus and over 32 million have been infected, a situation the UN said has surpassed a health and humanitarian crisis to become an unprecedented global development emergency.
It said the pandemic is expected to push some 100 million people into extreme poverty and an estimated additional 265 million people could face acute food shortages by the end of 2020, including over 17 million people in South America suffering severe food insecurity, a jump from 4.5 million just months ago.
The International Labor Organization estimated that the equivalent of 500 million jobs have been lost so far this year, a situation that will spread economic inequalities, disproportionately impacting developing countries and vulnerable groups.
Governments around the world have so far spent $11 trillion in response to the financial impacts caused by the pandemic and high-income economies were responsible for 88 per cent of the total amount, the UN said. Emerging and developing countries were responsible for 2.8 per cent of the amount.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres hosted the virtual high-level meeting on Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond with the participation of Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau and Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness as co-sponsors to find solutions to the global financial crisis and to maintain current efforts to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Guterres said the pandemic has caused the largest economic contraction since World War II with global income from work declining by more than 10 per cent so far this year with the massive job losses and government expenditures have skyrocketed while tax revenues plummeted.
“The Covid-19 pandemic is a catastrophe,” Guterres said. “But it is a generational opportunity to shape our future for the better. I have spoken of the need of a New Global Deal.”
The UN leader said a global economic recovery and an end to the pandemic would be possible only if the world can mobilize resources for diagnostics, treatment and vaccines.
He said the WHO’s program known as ACT-Accelerator requires a total resources of $38 billion to deliver over 2 billion vaccine doses, 245 million treatments and 500 million tests.
“We cannot reopen the global economy fully until we stop this virus in its tracks,” he said.
“At this moment, we have the opportunity to re-imagine our economic systems, reaffirm our common understanding of a more sustainable and inclusive recovery and re-establish momentum toward achieving the SDGs to build back better,” Trudeau said. “Only together can we lay the foundations of a better world.”
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