DOHA: Worn down by a barrage of crises and growing debt, leaders of the world’s poorest countries have stepped up demands for the rules governing debt of billions of dollars to be rewritten.
According to a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Western countries gave out over 185 billion dollars in cheap loans and grants in 2021. Official development support is one of the pillars of the international economic system.
But the forty-six Least Developed Countries (LDC) participating in their own UN-organized summit in Doha, Qatar, this week feel short-changed.
Five decades after UN established LDCs club
Five decades after the United Nations established the LDS club to create trade privileges and easier access to other finance, prime ministers and presidents said their issues have piled up.
Climate change, the coronavirus pandemic fallout, fuel and food price rises intensified by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, and ever-bigger debts negatively impact the poor countries who are blaming the system.
Jose Ramos-Horta, President of East Timor, said that their partners tend to blame the receiving partner for failures and avoid scrutiny of their aid programs that surely might have contributed to the failures.
Wavel Ramkalawan, Seychelles President, said that the time has come for the international financial institutions to move beyond per capita gross domestic product as the only scale for development.
He said that one size does not fit all. A system is required that recognizes that different nations have different problems.
