Amid conflicts, post-pandemic shocks, and climate change, Pakistan called for “generous” political and economic support for people living under foreign occupation, such as those in Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir, on Monday.
“Poverty reduction is a top priority for developing countries, especially in crisis and conflict situations,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, adding that Pakistan recognized the importance of population strategies, particularly those addressing health and related social issues.
“Emergency humanitarian and economic assistance is critical in situations like Afghanistan, as well as for the people of occupied Palestine and Jammu & Kashmir,” the Pakistani envoy continued.
As communities around the world attempt to accomplish the ambitious and holistic 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, he stressed the importance of understanding population dynamics (SDGs).
“A population that is educated, skilled, healthy, and empowered is the fundamental driver of development; a population that is uninformed, illiterate, and weakened by disease and unemployment is a stumbling block to growth and a prescription for persistent and escalating poverty.”
The coronavirus pandemic, natural and man-made disasters, as well as price inflation in food, energy, and other essential commodities, he said, have devastated developing countries in the last two years, necessitating the mobilization of adequate finance to respond to these multiple exogenous shocks to their economies and people.
Ambassador Akram echoed the UN Secretary-call General’s for more concessional aid, debt relief, re-allocation of unutilized SDRs (special drawing rights), increased financing from the IMF and regional banks, and mobilization of the promised $100 billion in climate finance annually in the FfD Declaration to help developing countries recover from crises and revive their economies.
Aside from such emergency measures, realizing the demographic dividend for developing countries and achieving the SDGs necessitates a broad range of national and international policy activities, including:
a priority focus on human development, with appropriate funding for high-quality education and health care, with a particular emphasis on women’s and youth’s empowerment in development;
sufficient investment in sustainable infrastructure, energy, transportation, agriculture, and housing to create jobs, ensure economic growth, and establish the groundwork for industrialization and long-term prosperity;
The development of a fair worldwide financial architecture, which includes a fair international tax system;
– Restructuring the global trade framework to give developing nations preferential and complete access to global markets for products and services, allowing them to prosper through exports;
– closing the digital divide that is widening between developed and developing countries; and
– stopping and reversing the billions of dollars in illicit money flows out of impoverished countries each year
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