Antonio Guterres denounced the fact that poor countries are stuck without help from rich economies

UN Secretary-General António Guterres assured this Sunday that the least developed countries (LDCs) are “stuck” in the midst of multiple global crises and are “unable” to keep pace with the nations with the most resources. , to whom he asked for a “revolution of support”.

“The least developed countries are stuck in the midst of a rising tide of crisis, uncertainty, climate chaos and profound global injustice. They are unable to keep up with rapid technological change“, declared the Portuguese at the opening of the fifth conference of the least developed countries, which is being held in Doha and which will last until next Thursday.

The diplomat made a point of stressing that the global financial system is “deeply dysfunctional and unjust”.

“The interest rates of the least developed countries are up to eight times higher than those of the developed countries. And the situation is only getting worse,” he said.

He explained that currently in total, 25 developing economies “spend more than 20% of their public revenues not to build schools, not to feed the population, or to expand opportunities for women and girls, but exclusively on debt repayment . In some cases, payments have skyrocketed by 35%.”

Likewise, he told rich countries that they had “no more excuses” and that “the time has come” for them to “deliver on their commitment to provide less developed countries between 0.15% and 0 20% of their gross national income from official development assistance”.

For this reason, António Guterres asked the richest nations for a “revolution of support” in at least three “key” areas.

“They need immediate help to save the Sustainable Development Goals. For less developed countries, these goals represent the survival: from the eradication of poverty to food, health, drinking water and sanitation”, he argued.

The second axis would be the reform of the global financial system and, finally, support for climate action, since the least wealthy countries produce less than 4% of global greenhouse gases, but “nearly seven out of ten deaths attributed to weather-related disasters occur in these countries”Guterres called back.

Presidents and leaders of 33 African and 12 Asia-Pacific countries and Haiti in the Caribbean They meet five decades after the UN created the LDC category with the aim of reducing inequality and the wealth gap.

During the five days of the conference, world leaders will meet with the private sector, civil society, parliamentarians and young people to promote new ideas, collect new pledges of support and push for the realization of agreed commitments, by through the Doha Program of Action, adopted in 2022.

The conference is expected to announce specific initiatives and concrete deliverables that address the specific challenges of these resource-poor countries, although no major pledges of funds are expected.

(with information from EFE)

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