![]() ![]() Similarly, credit rating agencies must adapt their fiscal risk criteria, with mechanisms including debt for climate and nature swaps. He called for measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement or go beyond gross domestic product (GDP) in order to inform access to concessional and non-concessional finance and technical cooperation. Morocco’s delegate, speaking for the Like-Minded Group of Countries Supporters of Middle-Income Countries, noted that 62 per cent of the world’s poor live in middle-income States, affirming the urgency of a systemic paradigm shift. Amid the downward development pressures of growing inflation, food insecurity, high borrowing costs and unilateral coercive measures, he echoed calls for reform of international financial architecture, reduction of the costs for borrowing countries and allocation of new SDRs. These and other factors had restrained the reform capacities of developing countries and the UN development system. The representative of Cuba, speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, cited the so-called “development fatigue” of donor countries and the subsequent lack of political will. It is therefore urgent to ensure access for developing countries to capital markets at sustainable costs, as developing States - especially those in Africa - pay eight times more in borrowing costs than developed countries. With 60 per cent of the poorest countries currently at high risk of debt distress or already over-indebted, he called for obstacles to development to be addressed. The representative of Senegal stressed that around 10 per cent of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty, almost half the world’s population are without access to the Internet and 600 million Africans lack access to electricity. In the ensuing debate, delegates from developing States echoed the urgent call for drastic structural reform of international financial architecture, lest hard won progress on the SDGs continue to slide backwards. It is crucial to redefine climate finance and measure inequality more accurately, incorporating Gini coefficients and income ratios into the assessment. She further advocated for comprehensive regulation of subsidies provided to private capital to ensure alignment with societal, developmental and environmental objectives. ![]() She proposed immediate actions including issuing special drawing rights (SDRs) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), shifting to selective SDR allocation and establishing an effective sovereign debt resolution mechanism. She further emphasized the yawning gap between financial commitments and the actual needs for development. Low-income countries allocate a staggering 171 per cent of their budgets to debt servicing, compared to spending on vital sectors like health, education and social protection - while middle-income nations are also devoting 104 per cent of their budgets to debt servicing, she added. Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, highlighted alarming levels of debt distress, with 75 countries already in default or near-default condition. He expressed hope that the Committee’s work will contribute to the global rescue plan by informing policies that put them on the path to achieving the SDGs. He further called for support to public-private partnerships, as well as South-South and triangle partnerships, paying special attention to the most vulnerable States. He also said that truly inclusive and more effective international tax cooperation can significantly support efforts to fight illicit financial flows, increase domestic resource globalization and support climate action. He recalled that world leaders at the SDG Summit laid out a rescue plan for the Goals, having also recognized that the 1.5☌ target is still within reach if action is taken now. “There is a broad agreement that the status quo is not sustainable and business as usual is not viable,” he underscored, encouraging the Committee to forge new commitments to catalyse much-needed SDG-aligned investments. ![]() Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, stressed that the international community is on track to achieve only around 15 per cent of SDG targets. As developing States face compounding crises of onerous debt, extreme poverty and the costs of climate change, “business as usual is not viable” in steering the dangerously off-track Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) back towards progress, speakers warned today as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) opened its annual general debate. ![]()
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