Bleak Prospects for Least Developed Countries Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
“The outlook for LDCs is grim”. The latest United Nations (UN) assessment of prospects for the least developed countries (LDCs) notes recent setbacks without finding any silver lining on the horizon. Promises unkept Half a century ago, LDCs were first officially recognised by a UN General Assembly resolution. It built on research, analysis and advocacy by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The landmark 1971 declaration drew attention to LDCs’ unique challenges and pledged support from the international community. The UN has convened four LDC conferences since, with each adopting a 10-year programme of action for national governments and ‘development…
Inflation Bogey Blocking Recovery Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The bogey of inflation has been revived. Dubious pre-pandemic economic progress, fiscal constraints and vaccine apartheid were bad enough. Now, ostensibly anti-inflationary measures also threaten recovery and sustainable development. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised downwards its latest global growth forecast. Its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) warns of a “dangerous divergence” between richer and poorer countries. This has been exacerbated by, but has also worsened national fiscal disparities and the ‘great vaccine divide’. Inflation bogey revived Meanwhile, there is growing talk of ‘stagflation’ – of rising inflation with slow growth and high unemployment, as in the 1970s. Meanwhile, The Economist warns of…
Better Late than Never, but Act Now Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The world should now be more aware of likely COVID-19 devastation unless urgently checked. Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced an US$8 billion plan to quickly vaccinate many more people to expedite ending the pandemic. New WHO plan Perhaps frustrated after being ignored by rich country governments and major vaccine producers, the new WHO plan is relatively modest, but hopefully more realisable. Supported by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Vaccination Strategy seeks to reduce vaccine apartheid by inoculating 40% in all countries before year’s end, and 70% by mid-2022. WHO had urged governments to vaccinate at least 10% of their populations by…
Stop New Washington Putsch Jomo Kwame Sundaram
As finance ministers and central bank governors gather next week for the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in the US capital, the first shots of a new putsch against multilateralism have been fired. The target: Kristalina Georgieva, Fund Managing Director (MD) since 2019. Georgieva’s sins She has tried to enhance multilateral coherence by aligning the Fund with the United Nations, as envisaged by then US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Like predecessor Christine Lagarde, the former Bank environmental economist is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals and addressing global warming. Despite Trump administration opposition, she supported issuing IMF special drawing rights (SDRs)…
Progressive Taxation for Our Times Jomo Kwame Sundaram
As developing countries struggle to cope with the pandemic, they risk being set back further by restrictive fiscal policies. These were imposed by rich countries who no longer practice them if they ever did. Instead, the global South urgently needs bold policies to ensure adequate relief, recovery and reform. Bold fiscal responses needed Governments must mobilise and deploy resources sustainably and fairly, consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With rich countries’ refusal to help more, adequate government financing is crucial. Taxation is typically a more sustainable, effective and accountable way of raising government fiscal resources. But the pandemic has…
Food Systems Summit’s Scientistic Threat Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Timely interventions by civil society, including concerned scientists, have prevented many likely abuses of next week’s UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS). The Secretary General (UNSG) must now prevent UN endorsement of what remains of its prime movers’ corporate agenda. Summit threat The narrative on food challenges has changed in recent years. Instead of the ‘right to food’, ‘food security’, ‘eliminating hunger and malnutrition’, ‘sustainable agriculture’, etc, neutral sounding ‘systems’ solutions are being touted. These will advance transnational corporations’ influence, interests and profits. The call for the Summit supposedly came from the SG’s office. There was little, if any prior consultation with…
End Vaccine Apartheid Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Vaccine costs have pushed many developing countries to the end of the COVID-19 vaccination queue, with most low-income ones not even lining up. Worse, less vaccinated poor nations cannot afford fiscal efforts to provide relief or stimulate recovery, let alone achieve Agenda 2030. Excluding by appropriating Developing countries now account for more than 85% of global pandemic deaths. By early September, The Economist estimated actual COVID-19 deaths worldwide at 15.2 million, rather than the official 4.6 million. In six of the ten countries with the highest fatality rates, less than a tenth of their populations were fully vaccinated as of 10 August. In the…
Allow Least Developed Countries to Develop Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The pandemic is pushing back the world’s poorest countries with the least means to finance economic recovery and contagion containment efforts. Without international solidarity, economic gaps will grow again as COVID-19 threatens humanity for years to come. Least developed While bringing some concessions, the ‘least developed countries’ (LDCs) designation – introduced five decades ago – has not generated changes needed to accelerate sustainable development for all. The United Nations (UN) General Assembly created the LDCs category for its Second Development Decade (1971-80). Its resolution sought support for its 25 poorest Member States, with Sikkim out after India’s 1975 annexation. With many others joining, the LDCs…
Prioritising Profits Reversed Health Progress Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Instead of a health system striving to provide universal healthcare, a fragmented, profit-driven market ‘non-system’ has emerged. The 1980s’ neo-liberal counter-revolution against the historic 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration is responsible. Alma-Ata a big step forward Neoliberal health reforms over the last four decades have reversed progress at the World Health Organization (WHO) Assembly in the capital of the then Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan, now known as Almaty. Then, 134 WHO Member States reached a historic consensus reaffirming health as a human right. It recognised that heath is determined by environmental, socio-economic and political conditions, not only medical factors narrowly understood. The Declaration stated,…
Privatised Health Services Worsen Pandemic Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Decades of public health cuts have quietly taken a huge human toll, now even more pronounced with the pandemic. Austerity programmes, by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, have forced countries to cut public spending, including health provisioning. ‘Government is the problem’ “India’s COVID crisis: A deadly example of government failure”, “Government failures still hamper [UK] Covid-19 response”. Such headlines have become commonplace as the pandemic rages on, with no sign of ending soon. Their godparents deserve due recognition. UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher claimed, “no government can do anything [good]… people look to themselves first… There is no such thing…
