In a report entitled "the price of dignity", the NGO Oxfam indicates that between 6 and 8% of the world population (around 500 million people) could fall into poverty as governments put an end to entire savings to control the spread of the covid-19 virus.
"This could constitute a global decline of ten years in the fight against poverty, and a decline of 30 years in certain regions such as in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East or North Africa", more than half of the world's population is threatened with falling below the poverty line following the pandemic, the same source added.
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Oxfam issued this warning ahead of the IMF and World Bank meetings in April and the G20 finance ministers, which will all be held virtually. In the absence of social protection systems, the poorest countries would be more affected as well as the disadvantaged populations, including women.
Request to cancel debt repayments
To avoid this, Oxfam recommends granting direct financial aid to those most affected, and priority support for small businesses by conditioning financial aid granted to the largest on measures in favor of vulnerable populations.
She also pleads for the cancellation this year of the debt repayments of the poorest countries, citing the example of Ghana which could "provide 20 dollars per month to each of the 16 million children, disabled and elderly people. of the country for six months "if he was freed from the deadlines on the payment of his debt.
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Other recommendations by Oxfam include increasing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing rights (SDRs) by at least $ 1 trillion to enable it to assist the poorest countries, increasing official development assistance from donor countries now and the creation of emergency solidarity taxes by taxing extraordinary profits, the greatest fortunes, speculative financial products and activities having a negative impact on the environment.
"France can decide without waiting for the cancellation of the debt payments due to it by the developing countries for 2020 in order to help them immediately to face the crisis," underlined in particular Robin Guittard, campaign manager at Oxfam France.