Your Highness,
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
All protocol observed,
This Conference was originally scheduled for January 2022.
The sudden cancellation due to the Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was yet another reminder that the world is subject to constant and unexpected change.
And indeed, since then, we have seen the eruption of war in Ukraine with a devastating impact on Ukrainians — but also on Least Developed Countries struggling with skyrocketing food and energy costs.
Meanwhile, global tensions and divides are deepening.
And so we must find ways to come together.
And there is perhaps no more important issue around which we can and must unite than in transforming the words of the Doha Programme of Action into results.
We don’t have a moment to lose.
Least Developed Countries are being stranded amidst a rising tide of crisis, uncertainty, climate chaos and deep global injustice.
They are unable to keep pace with lightning-speed technological change.
Systems are stretched — from health and education, to social protection, infrastructure and job creation.
Unemployment is rising — especially among young people.
And women are being pushed to the sidelines.
And a deeply dysfunctional and unfair global financial system is handing Least Developed Countries the rawest of deals.
Least Developed Countries face interest rates that are up to 8 times higher than developed countries.
And it’s only getting worse.
Today, 25 developing economies are spending over 20 per cent of government revenues not on building schools, not on feeding people, not on expanding opportunities for women and girls — but solely on servicing debt.
Some have seen debt-service payments skyrocket by 35 per cent.
So Excellencies,
Least Developed Countries need a revolution of support across three key areas.
First — they need immediate assistance to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals.
For Least Developed Countries, these goals represent survival in itself — from poverty-eradication, to food, health, clean water and sanitation.
This September’s SDG Summit is the centrepiece moment to demonstrate a global commitment for action.
We have put forward and presented to the G20 an SDG Stimulus to gather the world around the need to provide at least 500 billion US dollars a year to developing countries.
It’s also high time that developed countries live up to their commitment to provide Least-Developed Countries with 0.15 – 0.20 per cent of their Gross National Income for Official Development Assistance.
No more excuses.
We must also expand international efforts to fight tax evasion, money laundering and the illicit financial flows that drain domestic resources.
While no country or region is immune, lower-income countries lose a much higher proportion of their tax revenues to tax abuse — while having the least influence on global taxation rules.
Least Developed Countries also need funding and support for structural transformation to climb the value chain.
To massively invest in manufacturing and technological capabilities, and better infrastructure and transportation networks.
To give women a seat at the decision-making tables of government, business and civic life.
To invest in education and training to generate a highly skilled workforce.
And to strengthen institutions.
The Doha Programme of Action is a practical guide to address all these issues.
It contains concrete targets and deliverables such as a ‘Sustainable Graduation Support Facility,’ an ‘Investment Support Centre’, and an ‘Online University’, which can play a game-changing role in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in Least Developed Countries.
And so I call upon Development Partners to support the implementation of these deliverables and the achievement of the Doha Programme of Action targets.
Second — we need to reform the global financial system through a new Bretton Woods moment.
International financial institutions must develop creative ways to extending financing where the needs are greatest.
This includes expanding contingency financing and integrating disaster and pandemic clauses into debt instruments.
It is also time to accelerate the re-allocation of Special Drawing Rights from the richest countries that receive the most to those who need help the most.
Multilateral Development Banks should transform their business model to massively leverage funds to attract greater flows of private finance at reasonable cost into developing countries, in particular the least developed ones.
And we must find new, common-sense ways to measure countries’ economies — such as developing lending criteria that go beyond Gross Domestic Product to provide a true view of the value of natural capital such as the preservation of forests, watersheds and marine resources.
