The global financial crisis has hit the world’s poor and hungry – and their situation is set to get even worse, according to a new study by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
The head of the United Nations trade and development body has stressed the need for temporary debt relief for poor nations struggling amid the global economic downturn, stressing this would give them some breathing space and assist in recovery efforts.
The current global recession has revealed the shortcomings of global financial structures, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling for institutions to become more “representative, credible, accountable and effective.”
The spreading global economic crisis is set to trap up to 53 million more people in poverty in developing countries this year on top of the 130-155 million driven into poverty in 2008 by soaring food and fuel prices, bringing the total of those living on less than $2 a day to over 1.5 billion, according to the World Bank.
As governments scramble to shore up failing financial institutions and inject stimulus packages into deteriorating economies, the impact on the most vulnerable groups in all societies is going unnoticed, a United Nations commission warned today.
Trade, investment and other cooperation between developing countries – so called “South-South exchange – could soften the blow of the economic crisis on vulnerable economies, the head of the United Nations agency that promotes commerce to fight poverty said today.
Hitting business in the developed world hardest, foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped by over 20 per cent last year and is projected to fall further in 2009, according to a new United Nations report which warned policy-makers to resist calls for more protectionism to aid recovery.
