Recovering better together at this extraordinary moment in history
Excerpts from UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the Opening Ceremony of UNCTAD 15 in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Monday, October 4, 2021.
A GATHERING like this comes only once every four years. UNCTAD 15 is the Olympics of trade, development, investment, policy and technology discussions. And we need your advice and guidance today, more than ever.
Two weeks ago, at the UN General Assembly, I had the opportunity to sound the alarm. A wake-up call to the leaders of the world. A call to action to tackle the cascade of crises facing us – poverty and inequalities; conflicts and climate change; environmental degradation and disasters; mistrust and division; and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed almost five million lives so far.
The pandemic has wreaked havoc across the global economy.
It disrupted the powerful economic engines of trade, manufacturing and transportation. Millions of jobs have been lost at a time when social protections remain out of reach.
120 million people fell into poverty last year. 811 million are going hungry. Tens of millions of children remain out of school – particularly girls. And for the first time in two decades, the Human Development Index has declined.
We’re moving in the wrong direction. Decades of hard-won development progress are slipping away before our eyes. And the Sustainable Development Goals are at risk of failure.
We need to turn this around with a bold, sustainable and inclusive global recovery. One that benefits the many, rather than the few; one that delivers hope to people – and healing to our planet; and one that levels the playing field for all countries as they support their people during this extraordinary moment in history.
There is seemingly good news. Some estimates show that we’re in the midst of a substantial economic recovery – with world gross domestic product (GDP) growth ranging between five and nearly six per cent.
RECOVERY NOT EVENLY SHARED
But we know the other side of that story. This recovery is not evenly shared. Advanced economies are investing nearly 28 per cent of their GDPs into economic recovery. For middleincome countries, that falls to 6.5 per cent. And it plummets to 1.8 per cent for the least developed countries; 1.8 per cent of a very small gross domestic product. In all, more than eight out of every ten dollars in recovery investment is being spent in developed countries – not in the countries in greatest need.
An uneven recovery is leaving much of humanity behind. And until we get serious about vaccine equity, recovery will be stuck at the starting gate.
Wealthy countries have far more vaccines than people. Yet, more than 90 per cent of Africans have yet to receive their first dose. This is an outrage.
And as variants take hold and spread, this is a recipe for disaster, threatening us all.
As I have said repeatedly, the world must mobilise behind a global vaccination plan with clear targets for every country.
We need to dramatically ramp up vaccine production and get them into the arms of 70 per cent of people, in all countries, in the first half of 2022.
But vaccines are the first step in a much longer race.
FOUR GLARING CHALLENGES
Your theme this year – ‘ From inequality and vulnerability to prosperity for all’ – captures the heart of the challenge.
I see four glaring challenges, which – if not addressed – make any notion of prosperity for all a distant dream.
1. Debt distress. Left unchecked, debt distress is a dagger through the heart of global recovery. Countries cannot build back if they are held back.
2. Systems starved for investment. There is a need to get down to the business of a sustainable and equitable recovery for all. Around the world, COVID19 has starved all of the systems that support human development of needed investment. Without acceleration, we will not reach the Sustainable Development Goals.
3. Unfair trade. We need to re-ignite the engines of trade and investment, and ensure they benefit the poorest countries. COVID-19 has put the brakes on the contribution of trade to economic growth. The trade-to-GDP ratio remains below pre-pandemic levels. The pandemic also derailed investment, with Foreign Direct Investment plunging by 35 per cent last year. And in its current state, the global trade system remains heavily stacked against the poorest countries.
4. Climate emergency that leaves small island developing states like Barbados perilously vulnerable. We need to build a global green economy. A green and resilient recovery means committing to net-zero emissions by mid-century. More ambitious 2030 climate and biodiversity plans – COP26 in Glasgow must keep the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Agreement alive.
It’s time to make better choices. Through your discussions at this conference, we can explore new ways to learn from yesterday’s mistakes – and avoid repeating them.
We can make progress to ending the inequalities that hinder sustainable growth and prosperity for all.
And we can recover better together at this extraordinary moment in history.