Pakistan, speaking for G77/China, urges accelerated steps for recovery in Covid-hit countries

KARACHI: Pakistan, speaking on behalf of Group of 77 (developing countries) and China, has called for boosting efforts for sustainable recovery in the coronavirus-hit countries and to accomplish UN’s 2030 agenda aimed at ending poverty in all its forms.

“We must accelerate our efforts to reach the furthest behind first,” Ambassador Aamir Khan, acting permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the annual session of the executive boards of three UN funds and programmes.

The executive boards represented at the session were: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Office for Project Service (UNOPS).

Pakistan is the current chairman of G-77 and China, which now has 134 members and is the United Nations’ biggest intergovernmental group of emerging countries.

In the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Ambassador Aamir Khan said, low vaccination rates, combined with mounting debt challenges, accelerating inflation, and rising food insecurity meant a long and arduous path towards recovery that would require about $1 trillion annually to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the 46 LDCs. “The annual estimated financing gap in achieving the 2030 Agenda is at least $400 billion,” the G77 chairman said.

Noting the report of UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the Pakistani envoy expressed appreciation for the role the fund plays in providing financing solutions that benefit LDCs’s “last mile” populations, referring to people who are farthest away and most difficult to reach for a programme or service.,

“UNCDF’s support for financial inclusion in developing countries is important and the organization’s transition towards a greater focus on expanding digital financial services is a welcome step”, the G77 chairman said.

“Equipping LDCs to seize opportunities from digital finance and the broader digital transformation will be critical to allow their economies to grow and increase their productivity,” he said, while urging UNCDF to continue efforts to support mobilization of SDG financing for local governments and other local actors as a UN hub for local government financing.

The G77 also took note of the expansion in 2021 of UNCDF’s loan and guarantee portfolio, focusing especially on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)”.