RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian government is not part of a list of over 50 countries and international organizations that met on Thursday to draw up a strategy for a sustainable post-pandemic world recovery.
The event, under UN command, is led by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness. The World Bank, IMF and other institutions were also present.
Countries such as Argentina, Haiti, Costa Rica and Colombia, in addition to the EU, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom are on the list of countries which joined the debate. Donald Trump’s government was also not part of the initiative.
Last week, President Jair Bolsonaro was not part of the World Health Assembly either, a space occupied by Colombia and Paraguay. When asked, the Itamaraty foreign service failed to explain whether or not Bolsonaro had been invited.
In April, the government was also left out of an international alliance for the development of a vaccine. But the government is now preparing an inter-ministerial meeting to assess how to become part of the initiative.
This time, documents show that the project aims to address the recovery of the global economy, based on new pillars and a greater focus on social justice and climate issues. It is a “joint initiative to expedite the global response to the significant economic and human impacts of COVID-19, and advance specific solutions for the emergence of development”.
“This pandemic requires a large-scale, coordinated and comprehensive multilateral response to support countries in need, enabling them to better recover to more prosperous, resilient and inclusive economies and societies,” they state.
The “High-level event on Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” seeks to find ways to “focus on the socio-economic recovery and financing needs of the pandemic”.
“We must continue to coordinate these efforts to prevent a devastating impact on people’s lives and livelihoods,” it says.
Six areas of action were discussed to raise the funding required for response and recovery. They include “expanding liquidity throughout the global economy; addressing debt vulnerabilities; containing illegal financial flows; increasing external financing for inclusive growth and job creation; and strategies for countries to better recover, address climate change and restore the balance between the economy and nature”.
“The pandemic has exposed our fragility,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “We are in an unprecedented human crisis because of a microscopic virus. We need to respond with unity and solidarity, and a fundamental aspect of solidarity is financial support,” he added.
For Trudeau, “all countries are being tested by COVID- 19, and this threatens to undermine our hard-won development achievements. We know that the best way to help all our peoples and economies recover is to work together as a global community,” he said.
“If we don’t act now, UN projections suggest that the pandemic could cut nearly US$8.5 trillion from the global economy over the next two years, forcing 34.3 million people into extreme poverty this year, and potentially 130 million more over this decade,” the UN cautioned.