United Nations published this video item, entitled “”Recovery Remains Fragile” – UN Chief at World Economic Forum, Davos Agenda | United Nations” – below is their description.
The Davos Agenda, World Economic Forum – Virtual Special Address by António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations.
“This year’s World Economic Forum takes place in the shadow of an enormously difficult period for economies, for people and the planet.
According to the UN’s economic report released last week, the world is emerging from the depths of a paralyzing economic crisis.
But recovery remains fragile and uneven amid the lingering pandemic, persistent labour market challenges, ongoing supply-chain disruptions, rising inflation and looming debt traps, not to mention the geopolitical divide.
As a result, we see recovery slowing down quite substantially.
All of this threatens hard-won progress in advancing the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, our key projects.
The last two years have demonstrated a simple but brutal truth – if we leave anyone behind, in the end, we leave everyone behind.
If we fail to vaccinate every person, we give rise to new variants that spread across borders and bring daily life and economies to a grinding halt.
If we fail to provide debt relief and financing to developing countries, we create a lopsided recovery that can send an interconnected global economy into a tailspin.
If we fail to reduce inequalities, we weigh down economic progress for all people in all countries.
And if we fail to match climate rhetoric with climate actions, we condemn ourselves to a hotter, more volatile earth, with worsening disasters and mass displacement.
At the core of these failures is a global inability to support developing countries in their hour of need and also a problem of governance or international different systems.
Without immediate action to support them, inequalities and poverty will deepen.
This will result in more social unrest and more violence.
As the Forum’s new Global Risk Report reminds us, the world is marching down a path laden with enormous risks.
We cannot afford this kind of instability.
To chart a new course, we need all hands on deck – especially all of you in the global business community. And I have a number of asks.
As you meet, discuss and deliberate the prospects for recovery and economic rebound this coming year, I urge you to focus on three urgent areas.
First – we need to confront the pandemic with equity and fairness.
Last fall, the World Health Organization unveiled a strategy to vaccinate 40 per cent of people in all countries by the end of last year, and 70 per cent by the middle of this year.
We are nowhere near these targets.
Vaccination rates in high-income countries are – shamefully – seven times higher than in African countries.
We need vaccine equity, now.
All countries and all manufacturers must prioritize vaccine supply to COVAX, and support the local production of tests, vaccines and treatments around the world.
We need pharmaceutical companies to stand in solidarity with developing countries by sharing licenses, know-how and technology so we can all find a way out of this pandemic.
And of course, In situations where compensation may be warranted – we don’t want to have any pharmaceutical company in financial difficulties that are not able to invest – in those situations developed countries should explore ways to provide the necessary financial support.
And we must prepare for the next pandemic through common sense investments in monitoring, early detection and rapid response plans in every country – and by strengthening the authority of the World Health Organization.
Throughout, we need to bolster local primary health care, and put all countries on the road to achieve Universal Health Coverage and we are still so far from it.
Second – we need to reform the global financial system in a way that it can work for all countries without being biased.
At this critical moment, we are setting in stone a lopsided recovery.
More than eight out of ten recovery dollars are being spent in developed countries.
Low-income countries are at a huge disadvantage.
They’re experiencing their slowest growth in a generation – and trying to dig themselves out with woefully insufficient national budgets.
The burdens of record inflation, shrinking fiscal space, high interest rates, and they will be higher, and soaring energy and food prices are hitting every corner of the world and blocking recovery – especially in low- and some middle-income countries.
They stifle any hope of growth by making it even more difficult for governments to invest in the sustainable and resilient systems people need
(…)” [Excerpt]
Full Remarks [as delivered]: https://www.un.org/sg/en/node/261415
United Nations YouTube Channel
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