INTERVIEW
"We have to put in place a rescue plan". So the British organization Oxfam estimates that the health crisis due to the Covid-19 could plunge half a billion people into poverty, Cécile Duflot, director general of Oxfam France and former Minister of Housing alerted to the microphone of Europe 1 on the importance of helping countries in difficulty. "In the fight against poverty," the coronavirus could cause "a decade back," she said.
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2.500 billion dollars in mobilization
Cécile Duflot explains that the poverty caused by the pandemic will affect "all countries in the world", but "the threat is great in Africa and in Southeast Asia". Oxfam proposes a mobilization to the tune of 2.500 billion dollars, "with an emergency measure: give cash grants to those who need it". "There may be people who starve to death before they even die from Covid-19," explains Cécile Duflot.
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Cancel debts in 2020
Another proposal defended by the former Minister of Housing: the cancellation of debts for the year 2020, which represent considerable sums for certain States. Cécile Duflot takes the example of Ghana, in West Africa, which "pays eleven times more each year to repay the debt than for its health policy", or Sierra Leone, "where there is only a respirator for the whole population. " "The banks can suspend the 2020 annuity, like what we do with companies when we postpone contribution payments."
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While France will devote more than a billion euros to the fight against the Covid-19 in Africa, Cécile Duflot wants to be careful. "The question of what type of money and through which intermediaries we pass is very important. It is also the role of NGOs to provide a response as closely as possible," explains the director general of Oxfam France.