聯合國常務副秘書長阿明娜·穆罕默德（Amina Mohammed）今天在華盛頓表示，在多重全球危機中，可持續發展目標正變得越來越遙遠，突出表明需要改革全球金融架構。
在國際貨幣基金組織和世界銀行春季會議期間舉行的改革論壇上，穆罕默德呼籲在實現《2030年可持續發展議程》中期階段之際，修正路線以創造一個新的布雷頓森林體係“時刻”。
重重危機
過去幾年來，接連不斷的全球危機使發展中國家受到重創。高昂的能源和食品價格加劇了世界上一些最貧窮國家麵臨的挑戰，許多國家仍然深陷新冠疫情的泥沼。
人類發展指數32年來首次連續兩年下降，低至2016年的水平。
貧困和饑餓正在加劇，不平等現象也在擴大。
同時，氣候緊急情況繼續打擊脆弱經濟體和脆弱人口。瓦努阿圖是全球最易受氣候影響的國家。上個月，該國遭受兩重熱帶氣旋侵襲，導致國內生產總值損失一半，以及兒童罹患水媒疾病傳播增加。
此外，全球金融狀況迅速收緊，借貸成本上升，增加了脆弱國家的債務困擾風險，並削弱了其投資於複蘇的能力，更無法投資於氣候行動和長期可持續發展。
全球金融架構存在缺陷
穆罕默德指出：“這些廣泛的挑戰表明全球金融架構存在缺陷，這一架構是為一個不複存在的世界設計的，過於短視、容易發生危機並且極度不平等。”
全球一半的極端貧困人口分布在52個發展中國家。這些國家正遭受著嚴重的債務問題，其中25個將20%或以上的公共收入用於償還其外部公共債務。
在去年分配的6500億美元特別提款權中，發達國家獲得了約4200億美元（66%）；非洲僅獲得340億美元（5.2%）；而最不發達國家則獲得了不到170億美元（2.5%）。
改革勢在必行
穆罕默德表示，要改善全球金融架構，需要改革，創造新的布雷頓森林體係。
因此，布裏奇敦倡議引發了共鳴。該倡議呼籲采取行動解決債務和流動性問題，並大幅擴大官方貸款，例如擴大針對目前無法獲得救濟的脆弱中等收入國家的貸款。
聯合國秘書長古特雷斯同樣對改革表示支持，他呼籲啟動每年至少5000億美元的全球可持續發展目標刺激計劃，從而擴大為有需要的國家提供負擔得起的長期融資。
可持續發展目標刺激計劃提出了扭轉局麵所需要立即采取的行動。其中包括大規模動員官方融資、解決債務積壓問題、降低借貸成本、重新分配未使用的特別提款權，以及在危機時期提供應急融資。
五個相互關聯領域的挑戰
古特雷斯指出，要支撐新的布雷頓森林體係，需要以有意義的全球治理改革為基礎。
實現這些改革需要自我審視現有機構，並改進國際金融機構、聯合國和其他利益攸關方之間的合作。
穆罕默德強調，全球經濟治理改革的關鍵在於解決國際金融架構中五個相互關聯領域的挑戰：改革全球經濟治理；縮小主權債務架構中的差距；重塑國際公共財政，包括大規模擴大可持續發展投資的可負擔的長期籌資；加強全球金融安全網；以及重新設定銀行和金融係統的規則。
At the halfway mark of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are slipping from our grasp.
The succession of global crises over the past few years has battered developing countries. High energy and food prices have compounded challenges for some of the world’s poorest countries, with many still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the first time in 32 years, the Human Development Index has declined for two years in a row, reaching its 2016 levels. Poverty and hunger are on the rise, while inequalities have widened. These crises come on top of a climate emergency that continues to batter vulnerable economies and populations, making our asks of them to lift themselves out of destitution not only unrealistic – but delusional.
This is evidenced by last month’s twin cyclones on Vanuatu – the world’s most climate-vulnerable country – which has cost an estimated half of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), while leading to an increase of water-borne diseases among children. Across the world, we are asking too much, and offering too little.
These crises also come amid rapidly tightening global financial conditions and rising borrowing costs, which have increased the risk of debt distress in vulnerable countries and undermined their ability to invest in recovery – let alone climate action and long-term sustainable development.
Fifty-two developing countries, home to half of the world’s extreme poor, are suffering from severe debt problems. Twenty-five of them spend 20 per cent or more of their public revenue just to service their external public debt. These widespread challenges are indicative of a flawed global financial architecture — one that was designed for a world that no longer exists and is too short-sighted, crisis-prone and deeply unequal.
We need a course correction now to create a new Bretton Woods moment. This is why the Bridgetown Initiative has struck such a chord with its calls for action on debt and liquidity, and dramatically expanding official lending, including for vulnerable middle-income countries currently locked out of accessing relief.
The Secretary-General has lent his voice to calls for reform, in his proposal for a global SDG Stimulus of at least $500 billion a year to scale up affordable long-term financing for countries in need. The SDG Stimulus sets out the immediate actions required to turn things around. These include mobilizing official financing at scale, addressing debt overhangs and lowering the cost of borrowing, reallocating unused Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and providing contingency financing in times of crisis.
These actions can be taken immediately, without any changes to the current architecture and using existing methodologies and instruments. There is no reason not to act. And yet, the international community is not finding common ground. The Group of Twenty (G20) in particular remains at an impasse. But failing to listen to these clear cries for change would be a mistake, one that would lead to the decoupling of our global financial system — and an unravelling of multilateralism at large.
The Bridgetown Initiative, the forthcoming Summit on a new “Global Financing Pact” organized by President Macron in June in France, and the United Nations SDG Summit and High-Level Dialogue on Financing in September are all opportunities to build a coalition of like-minded leaders to drive an ambitious financing package for the SDGs and climate action.
All the recommendations in the SDG Stimulus are achievable – they just require political will. Actions taken now, as proposed in the SDG Stimulus, would go a long way towards addressing the urgent challenges of the moment. But they need to go hand in hand with an effort to reform and address deep and long-standing flaws in the international financial architecture.
The Secretary-General recently spoke of the need for a Bretton Woods 2.0 system, underpinned by a meaningful reform of global governance. Realizing these reforms will require looking inwards at our institutions, as well as revamping the engagement between international financial institutions, the United Nations and other stakeholders.
Global economic governance reform should be at the core of our engagement on the Summit of the Future in 2024. Reforms should address challenges in five interrelated areas of the international financial architecture.
First, global economic governance must be reformed. With developing countries playing an ever more important role in the global economy, there is a need to broaden and strengthen their representation in the governance of international institutions. Capital increases at international financial institutions are an opportunity to increase the voting shares of developing countries.
Second, closing gaps in the sovereign debt architecture. The current international system does not have the tools to drive the deep and rapid debt restructurings required. Nor is it equipped to address a systemic debt crisis. And we must not continue to fool ourselves into thinking that the Common Framework alone is sufficient to address today’s needs.
There is an urgent need to create an improved multilateral debt relief initiative, which includes mechanisms to involve private creditors in official debt relief efforts and ensure fair treatment of all creditors, while offering sufficient relief to avoid repeat crises. For many vulnerable countries, such as small island developing States, integrating disaster clauses into lending can provide immediate relief following a climate-related shock.
Third, there is a need to reshape international public finance, including by massively scaling up affordable and long-term financing for investments in sustainable development. Public development banks are uniquely positioned to play a key role in accelerating such investments. The terms of lending of multilateral development banks can be improved with longer-term loans, lower interest rates, local currency lending, and state-contingent repayment clauses. Multilateral development banks must also explicitly incorporate the SDGs into all stages of the lending process.
To boost their lending capacity, the multilateral development banks need to use existing capital more efficiently, building on the G20’s work on capital adequacy reform. But even that won’t be sufficient. They will also need new capital infusions. Re-channelling SDRs through multilateral development banks can also support lending. The African Development Bank’s SDR recycling initiative is a welcome move in this direction.
We must also address another gap in the international public finance architecture. The system was not set up to finance global public goods, such as climate action, or to prepare for massive transitions in our economies — such as those brought about by the digital and green economies.
In this regard, we must find a lasting solution to financing global public goods, including climate action. One proposal is a resilience fund, which could be partially funded by SDRs. Climate action must also be embedded within a just transition framework. This means that social protection and decent job creation must go hand in hand with adaptation and mitigation efforts.
Fourth, the global financial safety net needs to be strengthened. Recent crises have highlighted the vulnerability of many developing countries to external shocks, constraining access to international liquidity when countries need it most. For the long term, the development of a mechanism for more automatic countercyclical state-contingent issuance of SDRs should be considered.
In the near term, SDRs must be urgently re-channelled to countries in need. Of the $650 billion in SDRs allocated last year, developed countries received about $420 billion, or 66 per cent; Africa received only 5.2 per cent, or $34 billion; while least developed countries received less than $17 billion, or just 2.5 per cent. The Sixteenth General Review of Quotas is an opportunity to recapitalize the International Monetary Fund (IMF), expand its lending capacity, and de-link capital contributions and resource allocations.
Finally, we must reset the rules of the banking and financial system. The recent banking failures in the United States and Switzerland have once again exposed gaps in financial regulatory and supervisory systems.
Regulators must ensure that financial regulation effectively reins in excessive leverage. More broadly, it is time to find solutions to reduce short-termism in markets and to better align private finance with sustainable development. This includes better impact reporting to reduce greenwashing, policies to better align incentives, and corporate governance reform.
Most of the reforms I’ve highlighted are already being discussed on multilateral platforms including the G20 and international financial institutions — as well as in nationally led processes, such as the Bridgetown Initiative and the Paris Summit, and at the United Nations.
The time has come to bring these disparate discussions together, and build the political will required to transform these ambitions into reality. The international community must act now to deliver on the promises of the 2030 Agenda while leaving no one behind. Let’s get it done. Let’s do it together.
