UN High-Level Meeting Takes up the Debt Relief and Poverty Link

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness convened a high-level virtual meeting to discuss options for debt relief for developing countries.

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“While some countries have been able to accrue new debt to build a bridge to recovery and reserve vaccines, others have been forced to allocate their limited fiscal space to servicing their debts rather than supporting their people,” the UN recalled.

“Until all countries have the fiscal ability and capacity to invest in a global recovery... inequalities will continue to grow to the detriment of humanity as a whole,” it added.

During this high-level international meeting, Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez recalled that the current epidemiological situation obliges all countries to act with determination.

"We are facing a new global challenge that demands international cooperation... Financing for development is key to face this challenge," he said and recalled that around 85 million Latin Americans currently live in extreme poverty.

"We must be shaken by these figures," Fernandez stressed, adding that developing countries will need more funding to implement policies related to poverty, climate change, gender equity, and other issues with global implications which "already preoccupied us before the pandemic."

Argentina's President also called on multilateral institutions to support a new international architecture aimed at ensuring equity between debtors and creditors of sovereign debts.