United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has called for debt relief for all developing and middle-income countries in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has continued to cause social and economic havoc across the globe.
Mr Guterres has said the COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed havoc in every country and every economy of the world causing the loss of two million lives with about 500 million jobs having been lost, thereby triggering extreme poverty among developing nations.
Spelling out long list of priorities for 2021, Mr Guterres described the year 2020 as a year of death, disaster and despair, warning that if the virus was allowed to spread like wildfire in the Global South, it would inevitably mutate and become more transmissible, deadly and resistant to vaccines.
He told Member States that developing countries had been drained of their remittances, tourism revenues and earnings from commodities while wealthier countries were implementing recovery and stimulus plans worth trillions of dollars.
Mr Guterres said economic recovery should be inclusive and sustainable because the world was not going to heal from the COVID-19 if economies of developing countries were left on life support.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed havoc in every country and every economy. We have lost two million lives, including many dear members of our UN family. The human toll continues to multiply while the economic costs continue to mount. 500 million jobs are gone and extreme poverty is back to levels not seen in a generation. Inequalities are widening. Hunger is rising again. We need to move from death to health; from disaster to reconstruction; from despair to hope; from business as usual to transformation,” Mr Guterres said.
From his list of priorities, Mr Guterres announced the need for quick response to COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring that vaccines were made available and accessible to all countries.
He said while governments had a responsibility to protect their populations, vaccines were reaching only a handful of countries as quickly while the poorest countries had almost none.
Mr Guterres has also put priority on making peace with nature, and urged nations to consider the year 2021 as critical year tackling effects of climate change and promoting biodiversity.
Other priorities included tackling the pandemic of poverty and inequality, the scourge that has pushed more than 70 per cent of the world’s population into wealth inequality, gender inequality which he said had sparked a parallel epidemic of gender-based violence of increased child marriage and sexual exploitation.
Healing geopolitical rifts and finding common ground, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and seizing the opportunities of digital technologies while protecting against their growing dangers were the other priorities set out for the year 2021 for the United Nations.
“Our aim is for people everywhere to have affordable, meaningful and safe access to the Internet by 2030, and all schools online as quickly as possible. We need to strengthen cybersecurity and promote responsible behaviour in this domain. We need a ceasefire in cyberspace, including to end cyberattacks on vital infrastructure. We need to address the digital spread of hatred, exploitation and disinformation,” Mr Guterres said.
That was done a few years ago. It didn’t change the way poor countries run thrir affairs. Former backbench Tory politician Anne Widdecombe was right. It reminds me of what she said while on a visit to Zambia as part of a parliamentary team on a fact-finding tour of poor countries to assess the poverty situation before discussing debt forgiveness in the British parliament. She had warned that careless debt forgiveness would be a mistake unless there was a change of hw poor countries are governed.
Anne Widdecombe wanted debt forgiveness to go to only well-governed countries and not wholesale debt forgiveness of even kleptocratic regimes.
Nemwine is 100% right,debt forgiveness for reckless & corrupt borrowers like PF regime is misguided .Lungu’s irresponsible GRZ needs a tough beating.
This is for debt relief for all developing and middle-income countries. Zambia is not a middle-income country. Nor is it developing
Developing and middle income countries will be greatly helped if they are considered for debt relief… It’s a good call from the UN Chief
Great man with a lot of sense. When I tell these upnd diasporans that the effects of covid have put a strain on our economy, they jump up and down in denial like a frog on heat. I am glad the United nations are agreeing with our views. Upnd members hate this country so much that they are willing to side with imperial enemies over their own nation.
The un secretary general has spoken, meanwhile you with you birth certificate from sinazongwe thinks you know better
They call it debt relief, I call it fairness. The richest nations of the world were all developed on the back of the poor countries and so to put it straight, they owe their wealth to these nations. The law of nature demands that the strong must help the weak – even a small child will not abandon a crawling baby but lift it up to safety when they both face danger.
The relief package is vital we need it this pandemic has mercilessly ravaged the way of life of many especially for low income countries
This should be tied to GOOD GOVERNANCE …And KZ does not qualify …ooh sorry i meant Zambia does not qualify..Period
I mentioned no names of countries to qualify for debt relief. I just don’t support wholesale debt forgiveness. I’m sure lessons hv been learned by lenders. They want good behaviour on the part of borrowers.
You would rather see your own country starve while you are being kept there abroad. You evil upnd diasporans. This is what makes other African diasporans better than you. You will never find a west African looking down on his own people or country or wishing them ill things. You are demons.
Just like that, a nice loophole for African countries to get ahead. Sometimes nemwine it’s good to just shut up.
This is a reckless lazy bone chap like Edgar Lungu likes to hear …he can stop his motorcade in Cairo rd so he can listen carefully to what they are saying about debt relief
There are do’s and don’t’s about hw to manage a money economy. U hv to know wht can be done immediately, wht can be done over a period of time and wht not to do, wht is feasible now and wht can be feasible in the long run. You don’t spend borrowed money worse than a drunken sailor and hope to escape trouble. U can’t hv expensive residential and commercial property development taking place and state organs hv no clue who’s doing it and where they hv found the money.
When the nxt round of debt forgiveness talk starts, I intend to be vocal on the issue. “No debt forgiveness for kleptocratic regimes” will be the mantra.
Fuseke