New Delhi: Indian Nobel laureates Amartya Sen and Kailash Satyarthi and economist Kaushik Basu are among the over 225 global leaders who have jointly called for a meeting of the G20 nations to agree to a USD 2.5 trillion coronavirus global health and economic recovery plan.
The letter, signed by over 225 past and current leaders from around the world, calls for the G20 Summit to be convened urgently to address the health and economic crises in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and to put forth a global recovery plan.
The G20 countries had on March 26 pledged USD 5 trillion to counter the impact of the pandemic amid forecasts of a deep recession.
The pandemic has killed over 375,000 people worldwide, ravaged the global economy and left millions jobless.
Sen, Satyarthi and Basu are signatories to the letter along with other leaders from every continent, including former UK prime ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, former president of the UN General Assembly María Fernanda Espinosa, former president of Sri Lanka Chandrika Kumaratunga and Director-General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi, Suman Bery,.
The leaders said that while the G20 is not due to meet until late November this year in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh, action is urgent because only a fraction of the USD 2.5 trillion that poorer countries need to fight COVID-19 has been allocated.
“Time is running out to avert a further global health and economic disaster as 440 million more people face poverty and 265 million face malnutrition.”
“Without action from the G20, the recession caused by the pandemic will only deepen, hurting all economies and the world’s most marginalised and poorest peoples and nations the most. Representing, as it does, 85 per cent of the world’s nominal GDP, the G20 has the capacity to lead the mobilisation of resources on the scale required. We urge leaders to do so immediately,” the letter said.
The signatories said that the time is right for the G20 leaders to hold a second meeting to discuss measures to advance the implementation of the G20 Action Plan, and agree to a more strongly coordinated global response to the health, economic and social emergencies the world faces.
“Our world is at a critical moment. Therefore, we write again to underline the urgency of delivering immediate relief to countries facing the effects of an unprecedented, global crisis. For the first time (in) this century, global poverty is on the rise. The problems faced by the poorest countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America demand immediate action, as do those confronting diverse middle-income economies,” the letter said.