eBusiness Weekly
New24.com
Leonardo Munoz / AFP
The UN General Assembly (UNGA78), currently underway, is spending much of its time on topics such as democracy, environmental protection, and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
But without money, that was just empty talk, experts have warned.
“In 2015, the international community won a historic agreement on goals to lift countries out of poverty and protect our planet,” said Eric LeCompte, the executive director of religious development group Jubilee USA.
Defined as “a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”, the SGDs are a set of 17 interconnected goals.
They were created at UNGA70 in 2015.
According to the World Bank, at least R94 trillion per year was needed to achieve SDGs by 2030.
Of that, 66% should have been channelled to the developing world for mainly food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, health, and infrastructure.
But the world’s wealthiest nations have fallen short of these promises.
“We knew that developing countries would need trillions of dollars to achieve development goals. Unfortunately, the money that we need is nowhere in sight,” said LeCompte.
According to the UN, seven years before the SGD target date, only 12% of the goals were on track.
As such, LeCompte added debt remained the biggest disadvantage.
That is why debt restructuring and relief for the developing world are a must.
“Debt relief remains on the UN agenda as a way to fund development and win the SDGs,” said LeCompte, who also serves on UN expert groups.
Prior to UNGA78, UN Secretary General António Guterres said he would “shine the spotlight on how to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals at the halfway mark to 2030. On how to boost ambition to tackle the climate crisis. On crucial questions of funding and investments for development. On health challenges, hotspots, and a host of other issues”.
“My appeal to world leaders will be clear: This is not a time for posturing or positioning. This is not a time for indifference or indecision. This is a time to come together for real, practical solutions.”
LeCompte added there was no excuse as “G20 efforts are important because debt relief is a way to help countries get out of the crisis”.
The G20 debt relief framework in Africa has so far only been applied in Zambia, Ethiopia, Chad, and, most recently, Ghana.
Gathered in Dakar, Senegal, early this month at the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development Summit, leading economists, and academics from across Africa agreed the framework was moving at a slow pace.
Debt relief, according to LeCompte, was one way of showing support for fast-tracking delayed SDGs.
“Beyond getting countries out of crisis, debt relief can be used to help countries achieve sustainable development,” he said.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, in the early days of his first term, has been at the forefront of pushing for African interests.
As a special guest early this month at the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, he called for collective management of the world.
Then, in his address yesterday at UNGA78, he challenged the West to invest more in Africa and have meaningful debt restructuring in place.
Tinubu said:
Direct investment [from wealthy nations] in critical industries, opening their ports to a wider range and larger quantity of quality African exports, and meaningful debt relief are important aspects of the cooperation we desire.
According to the UN’s Conference on Trade and Development, Africa’s total governmental debt in 2022 was R34 trillion (US$1.8 trillion).
Even though it only makes up a small portion of the total amount of debt owed by developing nations, since 2010, the continent’s debt has grown by 183 percent, or around four times higher than its GDP in American dollars.
