Commonwealth makes case for financial support to small, vulnerable states amid Covid-19

Ministers and senior officials of Commonwealth member countries have called on the international community to reform its financial system and offer more support to small states in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The representatives made the call during a virtual event, cohosted by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

In the course of the event, various issues were discussed among which is the need for improved access to financial resources and debt relief to secure small states’ economic resilience and maintain progress on their sustainable development goals (SDGs) and Nationally Determined Commitments (NDC) for tackling climate change.

The representatives also called for a concerted effort towards a reassessment of the criteria for debt relief, especially given the vulnerabilities of many states exposed by the pandemic.

Patricia Scotland, secretarygeneral of the Commonwealth, bemoaned the wide-ranging impact of COVID-19. She suggested the need for a new set of criteria for the financial support being offered to vulnerable small states and also pointed to the need for urgency in reassessing the methods used in classifying countries for official support.

She asserted that the Covid-19 pandemic is not a crisis to be ignored and that failure to fully tackle the issue immediately will put economies, livelihoods and communities at real risk.

“Many small states are facing an existential threat with the impact of the pandemic coming with huge economic ramifications alongside the ongoing and devastating effects of climate change. If we are to be able to meet the very real and urgent needs of these small states we must redefine economic vulnerability and as regional and multilateral institutions, we must agree on the appropriate definitions and measurement of economic vulnerability.” Scotland said.

According to estimates by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as a result of the far-reaching economic and social impacts of COVID-19, the real output of small states could fall by 3.1 per cent with GDP potentially declining by about 8.6 per cent, twice that expected in larger countries.