Washington D.C., 14 October 2022 – The United Nations Secretary-General Mr. António Guterres today addressed the ongoing World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings in the capital city and federal district of the United States.
The world continues to face unprecedented times. According to a 缅北禁地Development Programme (UNDP) report, fifty-four countries that are home to more than half of the poorest people on the planet need urgent debt relief. Mr. Guterres thanked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, for her leadership and incorporating climate change across their operations and policies as well as the establishment of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust. He emphasized that Sustainable Development Goals are getting more distant by the day creating a recipe for growing poverty, mistrust, social unrest and conflict were major catalyst. “We are losing the climate change battle and fast approaching tipping points that will make climate catastrophe irreversible,” he said.
He reiterated that the pandemic response added some 16 trillion dollars to fiscal resources, loans and guarantees in a period of about 12 months but they had different impact in different countries. Contrary to others, developing countries couldn’t print money. Now they face huge obstacles to raising what they need for crisis response and long-term investment. They have no fiscal space; many are crushed by debt. He requested help in urgently providing liquidity to countries in need, establishing a workable mechanism to restructure sovereign debt comprehensively, effectively, and fairly, and finally helping massively boost investment in transitions in energy, food systems and the digital economy.
Speaking at the World Bank Development Committee, Mr. Guterres called for the launch of a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Stimulus led by the G20 amounting to USD 500 billion a year to address short-term liquidity issues, speed up the pace of debt relief, and enable investment at scale in the SDGs. He promised his support to the World Bank and IMF as central to its implementation.
Mr. Guterres shared key priorities of the SDG Stimulus for Multilateral Development Banks, as well as the World Bank. Focusing on increasing long-term concessional financing to developing countries, establish a mechanism to re-channel Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), while preserving their role as a reserve asset. He highlighted that all new concessional lending should prioritize the SDGs. Increasing access limits to the World Bank’s crisis response windows and accelerating disbursements to countries in need was key, including recycled SDRs. He urged the G20 to agree on an enhanced Debt Service Suspension Initiative that includes all lending to the poorest countries and vulnerable middle-income countries. Mr. Guterres implored all “ as shareholders of the World Bank, and particularly members of the G20, to commit to this SDG Stimulus, starting with Bali in November.”
This message echoed Mr. Guterres’ on Thursday, where he stressed the “need to triple current investments in renewables and meet the adaptation needs of the developing world, which are set to increase to some $300 billion a year by 2030.”
The Secretary-General met with H.E. Mr. John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate of the United States, at the United Nations Information Centre in Washington. He also had separate meetings with David Malpass, the President of the World Bank, Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and others.
