News & Analysis: G20
“Our collective failure to end the pandemic now will create and compound even deeper and more costly problems in the future. The immediate knock-on effects, including for the West, will be severe. But this historic failure of multilateralism is also undermining the trust and incentives necessary for effective international cooperation on the other existential challenges of the day – most notably, climate change.”
“The G7 countries pledged a massive scale-up in support of developing-country financing at their recent summit in the UK. How it will be financed remains an open question. But analyzing trends in recent debt flows by lenders to developing countries, and taking stock of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), can provide some important lessons for the G7’s new ambitions.”
“The existing global effort to bring vaccine coverage to poor countries, known as the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility, has fallen disastrously short of what is needed.”
“The G7 has promised to donate 1 billion Covid vaccine doses by the end of 2021. However, in South Sudan, COVID-19 restrictions, aid cuts and comments by European leaders have shattered trust in public health advice and encouraged vaccine hesitancy. Despite the rhetoric, donating vaccines while cutting aid may prove meaningless.”
COVID-19 Africa Watch talks to State Minister Yasmin Wohabrebbi about the policy response to the pandemic, the efforts to develop the digital economy, and the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI).
“Now that it’s lasted a year, a standstill is not enough. What needs to be done with debt is comprehensive and quick restructuring. We don’t want to fall into the trap of doing too little too late.”
“With Africa lagging behind in the race to roll out Covid-19 vaccines, will recent undertakings by the G7 help to improve access?”
“Chinese banks have offered significant debt restructuring both before and during the coronavirus era acting within and outside of the G-20 arrangements.”
“Ethiopia has asked for debt relief under a G20 programme to help poor countries reeling under the economic impact of coronavirus, making it the second African country to do so in the past week.”
“Like several other African countries, Chad is struggling with a high debt burden against a backdrop of the coronavirus crisis and low prices for oil, its major export.”
A hub for information, analysis, and the global response to COVID-19’s impact on Africa