Finance ministers from colorful Commonwealth countries have called for a systemic reform of the global fiscal armature to enhance access to development backing for vulnerable countries
The collaborative call for reform came at the Commonwealth Finance Ministers High- Level Working Group meeting in Washington DC on 14 April 2023.
At the initial Commonwealth Finance Ministers High- Level Working Group Meeting on the perimeters of the 2023 World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund( IMF) Spring Meetings, finance ministers bandied public financial programs, measures for fiscal sustainability, eligibility criteria for development finance and implicit reforms needed for a further indifferent fiscal armature.
In their call, ministers stressed that any reforms must increase backing and consider the realities of vulnerability when allocating support to help vulnerable countries invest in adaptability and achieve sustainable development.
In her opening reflections, the Commonwealth Secretary- General, the Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC said
“ Our world faces lapping, interlinked and accelerating profitable, security and environmental challenges. They entwine and accelerate to amplify being inequalities, hanging stability, adaptability and development prospects.
“ The need for ambitious, systemic change has noway been lesser. As the Commonwealth family, representing one- third of humanity, we’re joining forces to call for reform of the global fiscal system to deliver an armature that’smulti-dimensional, fit- for- purpose and adaptive to arising and being challenges, with a view to erecting long- term adaptability and achieving sustainable development. ”
She continued “ To produce meaningful change, the global fiscal system must take into account the realities of vulnerability when allocating support to developing countries. ”
In this regard, Secretary- General Scotland stressed that the Commonwealth’s Universal Vulnerability Index provides a solid base to more target support for those who need it the most.
Delivering a keynote address at the working group meeting, the Prime Minister of Barbados, the Hon Mia Mottley, said
“ One sure thing is that the status quo isn’t working for us. The continued discriminative treatment between the global north and the global south really can not continue, especially in a poly- extremity The time is now for action and to insure that the global fiscal system is fit for purpose. ”
The working group meeting also gave ministers an occasion to concentrate on the critical need to impact the global fiscal armature, which is still sustained by financial rules and conditions supposed unfit to meet the requirements of the current global profitable geography and lapping challenges.
Eligibility criteria for penetrating concessional finance are grounded on sole criteria of gross public income( GNI) per capita, which substantially disregards public vulnerabilities. still, recent lapping heads have exposed and handed substantiation of countries ’ vulnerability to external shocks. The traditional rules and governing conditions for access to transnational development finance are no longer applicable in this period of interlocked and lapping heads.
The Commonwealth Secretariat paper named’ financial Policy Options for flexible and Sustainable Development’ considers the multidimensional vulnerabilities and socio- profitable development challenges faced by countries and recommends several financial and policy reforms to grease more flexible and sustainable development issues.
Speaking at the working group meeting, Senior Director for Economic, Youth and Sustainable Development at the Commonwealth Secretariat, Ruth Kattumuri said
” Collaboration among Commonwealth countries, would enable knowledge exchange, grease data sharing, exploration and tool accoutrements , including use of Environmental, Social and Governance( ESG) practices to cover and accelerate progress on sustainable investing toward enabling an environmentally responsible frugality and society, together with guarding our earth.”
The ministers agreed for India to be the president, and Nigeria as the deputy president, for the Finance Ministers Working Group for a state Call for Reform of the Global Financial Architecture.