‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is’: Financing the SDGs —
The poor progress of the Sustainable Development Goals continued to be a common theme through the middle of the General Assembly high-level week. On Wednesday, heads of state, ministers and representatives from institutes and civil society organizations got down to brass tacks on global financing. The event was advertised as a dialogue of experts but was formatted — as is typical at the UN — as a series of three-minute presentations, with little meaningful back and forth, at least in the first half of the day.
Some well-worn statements bear repeating. As Dennis Francis, the president of the General Assembly, said at the event, “To date, only 15 percent of the SDG targets are on track, and nearly one third have stalled or gone into reverse.” Moving to specifics, he added, “It is absolutely clear that the current financial architecture has fallen short in mobilising the stable, long-term, and equitable financing required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Affirming that progress on the SDGs won’t happen without money, Secretary-General António Guterres said at the event that of all the issues to be discussed this week, “finance may be the most crucial.”
Covid-19, the world’s cost-of-living crisis and Russia’s war in Ukraine have produced enormous setbacks to the gains. But as Guterres pointed out, “There is a stark and growing divide between countries that can access financing at reasonable terms — and those that cannot and are being left even further behind.”
The tone was clearly alarmed. President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba called the current moment “one of the most complex crises humanity has seen.” Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank, pleaded: “The time for conversations is past. The time to show that you care and that you’re willing to put your money where your mouth is and do the right thing, is here.”
“It is clear,” Guterres said, “that the systemic problems of financing for sustainable development require a systemic solution: reform of the global financial architecture.” He named three stunning statistics: Developing countries are in a debt trap, borrowing at rates eight times higher than European countries; one in three countries faces the brink of a fiscal crisis; and 40 percent of people living in extreme poverty inhabit countries with severe debt challenges.
“My proposed SDG stimulus would release at least $500 billion dollars per year in affordable long-term financing for investments in sustainable development and climate action,” Guterres said, promoting one of his major remedies for boosting the SDGs and meeting other global challenges. Increasing the capital base of multilateral development banks and changing their business model would enable governments to scale up development and climate investments significantly, he added.
One popular topic at the dialogue was the need to level the playing field so that developing countries can achieve the SDGs, like gender equity, education rights, poverty reduction and climate protection while these nations still rise economically.
“Developing economic countries must participate equally as well as meaningfully in the decision-making process of international economic order,” said Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa. “Credit ratings of developing countries and the African economies in particular need to be based on the economic fundamentals and not on assessments that are completely devoid of the realities of developing countries.”
Kristalina Giorgieva, head of the IMF, highlighted that the topic of global sovereign debt at the dialogue included the voices of traditional creditors, new creditors (China, India, Saudi Arabia and Brazil) and debtor countries “because their voices also need to be heard.”
Regarding debt, one of the punchiest recommendations came from Carola Mejia, a senior analyst with the Latin-American Network for Social and Economic Justice. She pointed out that in many countries, more money is spent on debt than on health, education and other necessities. “Even though many are trapped in vicious cycle of debt, yet more debt is talked about,” she said, demanding that debt cancellation must be extended “to all countries that need it.”
The current global tax architecture and the need for effective global tax reform also arose during the event, sparking one of the few pushbacks in the daylong affair, coming from Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs, Peter Szijjarto. He pointed out that tax law is a sovereign issue, “so we cannot take care of this on international level.”
Chenai Mukumba, executive director of Tax Justice Network Africa, a nongovernmental organization, later seemed to respond to Hungary, clarifying that “while countries do have a sovereign right to collect taxes, illicit financial flows through tax avoidance prevent the exercise of this right.”
Global reform as intended by tax reform advocates centers on the need to recoup money lost through corporations cheating in the international space and determining which countries get to collect taxes, based on location of resources, production and offices. As Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, executive director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, put it: “Founders of the UN didn’t envision countries and corporations hiding so much money in tax havens.” — MARIA LUISA GAMBALE
Mauritanians Protest Their Country’s Military, Discrimination Practices and Slavery
Mauritanians mounted vigorous protests near the United Nations for the second day in a row on Wednesday. The protest targeted Gen. Mohamed Meguett, speaker of the country’s National Assembly; the military system that has been ruling the West African nation since 1960; and discrimination against Black Mauritanians. The protest was heavily dominated by new Mauritanian migrants to New York, almost all of whom are living in the city’s shelter system while they try to find work and obtain asylum. PassBlue spoke to some of the protesters and a longtime local Mauritanian activist, Tandia Bakary, who co-founded the Abolition Institute, which aims to end slavery in Mauritania and around the world.
At the same time, on Sept. 20, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani focused on the Sustainable Development Goals in his speech to the General Assembly, saying they serve “as our guidelines in our development work.”
“This is clear in our strategy to expedite shared prosperity,” he added.
At the protest, Bakary said some of the Mauritanians’ ire was directed at General Meguett, “against whom there are strong allegations of crimes against humanity and crime of torture,” when he ran the nation’s army. He became president of the National Assembly in April. “He is next in line to become the president of Mauritania in case of vacancy because he’s second after the president. This is unacceptable.”
A 1993 amnesty law covers General Meguett, yet the protesters demanded that he face justice. “So, we have asked him if you are innocent, it is very simple, repeal the amnesty law and go to court and clear your name,” Bakary said. “That is what people do if they trust their own court system.” At the same time, he continued, “we protest against all the types of human rights violations, you know, racism, racial discrimination and slavery, police violence.”
If you have a degree, he added, listing some of the forms of discrimination in Mauritania, “you cannot get a job because you don’t speak Arabic or because of the color of your skin. The government refuses to legalize some political parties. If we are in true democracy, it shouldn’t be a problem for a political party to be recognized because they represent an important part of the population.”
Mamadou Kane is a more recent arrival to New York City. “So you may see,” he said about the lack of legal status for many Mauritanians back home, “Mauritanian people without an ID. It means, legalistically speaking, you have no status. If you own cattle, or whatever you own, you can be legally challenged, because you don’t have a legal status in the country.” — MARIA LUISA GAMBALE
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts about reform of the financial architecture system?
Maria Luisa Gambale, a graduate of Harvard University, lives in New York City. In addition to writing, she produces film and media projects and is director of the 2011 film “Sarabah,” about the Senegalese rapper-activist Sister Fa. She has produced and directed video for National Geographic, ABC News, The New York Times and Fusion Network. Gambale’s work in all media can be viewed at www.veradonnafilms.com.
This article which has been widely shared around the world should be construed as a fresh blood injected into the veins of the fight against slavery and racial discrimination in Mauritania. By exposing the government while amplifying the VOICE of the victims at the world stage, it has taken the struggle to new heights. That is why the demonstrators left with the feeling of a mission well accomplished.
Merci encore une fois pour cet excellent travail.