UN chief Antonio Guterres has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic will cause unimaginable devastation, usher in hunger and famine of historic proportions, and lead to a loss of 8.5 trillion US dollars in global output the sharpest contraction since the Great Depression if nations did not respond with unity and solidarity.
He underlined the need for the world to respond to the unprecedented crisis with unity and solidarity. Later addressing a virtual press conference Antonio Guterres said the world is afflicted by enormous fragilities: weak health systems; runaway climate change; unsustainable levels of inequality.
Antonio Guterres told the high-level meeting that the UN is asking for immediate, collective action in six critically important areas to deal with the crisis.
Noting that the economic fallout from the pandemic threatens a wave of defaults in developing countries, stymieing the effort to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the UN chief”s second call was for “durable solutions on debt, to create space for investments in recovery and the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Next, he urged private creditors to hold a growing share of developing countries” sovereign debt to find incentives to encourage more creditors to provide debt relief.