Speakers:
– Opening remarks by H.Em. Cardinal Peter K. A. Turkson, Prefect, Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development – Ambassador Munir Akram, President, UN Economic and Social Council
– Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Africa
– Jose Antonio Ocampo, Former Finance Minister and Central Bank Board Member of Colombia
– Daouda Sembene, Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow, Center for Global Development, and Former IMF Executive Director for African Countries
– Ana Corbacho, Assistant Director, Strategy, Policy and Review Department, IMF
– Esteban Perez Caldentey, Chief, Financing for Development Unit, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
– Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
– Moderator: Eric LeCompte, Executive Director, Jubilee USA
Background: As the coronavirus health, social and economic crisis hammers the world economy, developing countries continue to bear the brunt of the impacts on growth, poverty and inequality. The uneven rollout of vaccines and appearance of new variants of the virus threaten to prolong the crisis.
Global reserve funds in the form of IMF SDRs are a vital tool to provide swift and unconditional support to the global response without increasing debt. Civil society organizations and experts called for a new allocation of $3 trillion in SDRs.
The IMF membership conveyed broad support for an allocation of $650 billion in SDRs and will consider a formal proposal in June. Of this amount, low-income countries would receive $21 billion – crucial relief, but not close to the $450 billion financing needs identified by the IMF to step up pandemic response and accelerate growth. Developing countries would receive $230 billion, short of IMF estimates that last year placed emerging economies’ financing needs at $2.5 trillion.
