This year during the World Bank Group-IMF Virtual Spring Meetings, Paul Blake takes us through the different Public Programming topics that are covered throughout the week and how to get involved.
During day 1 of the 4-day series, Economic Recovery: Toward a Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Future was discussed in detail. Before I delve further into what was discussed, you may be wondering what ideally happens during these spring meetings and what they are exactly!!
So, every year in the months of March or April, the joint World Bank-IMF Development Fund and International Monetary and Financial Committee, meet to discuss progress on the work of the two institutions. These meetings are what we mean by Spring Meetings. At these meetings, a variety of activities are organized to involve media, CSOs and the private sector and there are translations from English to French, Arabic and Spanish.
The first day’s topic was hosted by Journalist Larry Madowo. Madowo believes that, “The pandemic has dealt with the global economy in an unprecedented shock and the recovery is likely to be slow and uneven. Disadvantages and inequalities have been amplified with harm falling hardest on poor people, businesses and countries.”
This first day session, the 3 panelists, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, IMF MD Kristalina Georgieva and WBG President David Malpass looked ahead into better times and discussed what is actually needed to support a faster and deeper economic recovery that lays the foundation for a more sustainable and inclusive global economic system. To do this, economic recovery was looked into through 3 broad lenses: sustainability, resilience and innovation and inclusion.
To be able to understand these 3 lenses, the panelists answered the questions;
How can we make this recovery green and rebuild economic systems to better use resources and create a climate friendly future?
How can firms reinvent themselves to create more jobs and how can governments find new ways to transform the crisis into an opportunity for growth?
Can we avoid a lost generation of youth?
Lastly, how can policymakers make sure everyone benefits from the recovery and inequality is not worsened?
The world faces major challenges including COVID, climate change, rising poverty, inequality and violence in many countries. Inequality is most apparent in the direct effects of COVID that hit informal workers and the vulnerable the most. These include, vaccinations, wealth concentration, unequal impact of the fiscal stimulus, asset purchases and the imbalance in debtor/creditor relationships particularly for people in the poorest countries. Many developing countries entered the pandemic with unsustainable debt levels but WBG worked to achieve a debt service suspension initiative and increased transparency in debt contracts.
The world has made it their priority to maximize resources available to people to be able to combat this situation. The focus is on the pandemic and trying to promote vaccinations, testing and contact tracing to get the situation under control.
Support to the most vulnerable people who are low income earners and minorities; impacted health-wise and has economically been increased through initiating programs that support them such as covid-19 relief for rental assistance, unemployment insurance programs, relief funds, support for families that are burdened with women who are out of the workforce because children cannot go to school, trying to reopen schools promptly, support state and local governments.
What then is the US doing to help the world recover economically from the crisis? The US believes in going big so as to have a faster recovery. This involves finalizing a new climate change action plan which includes a big step up in building record climate financing. Additionally, turn to a longer term investment agenda once recovery occurs.
Their domestic actions are helpful to the entire global community as this spills over positively to the entire global outlook. Moreover, the US encourages developed countries that have the capacity, using fiscal and monetary policies to continue to support global recovery for the sake of the growth in the entire global economy.
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We would be happy to hear your perspectives on this topic.
The world’s economy is on a sounder footing. The recovery is progressing and the actions taken by countries to boost prospects for recovery are helping. IMF has stepped up significantly in providing financial lifelines to vulnerable countries, emerging markets with weak fundamentals, and low income countries by making sure that those with limited fiscal space and no access to markets are not left out from the recovery. They have focused on giving everyone a fair shot as economic fortunes within countries are diverging dangerously.
To be able to achieve a quicker full recovery, we need to work together. What can everyone do working together to achieve an inclusive recovery? The developed countries have the responsibility to ensure that they fight poverty globally and try to close income gaps between rich and poor countries.
Climate change is a global problem and we need to work together to solve this. Climate risks are a growing threat to macroeconomic and financial stability. Climate action offers the prospect for green growth and jobs. For countries with high emitters, focus is on mitigation policies while for vulnerable countries, focus is on adaptation policies. Countries need to speed up the ability to integrate climate policies to their macroeconomic policies.
The economic downturn has had a devastating impact on young people around the world. The adverse impact has been on education, health systems, economy, psychological well-being and caused fear and anxiety among the youth. What exactly gives us hope as youth when we look into the future? Young people have a priority role in building a recovery that is green, resilient, inclusive and fair. By collaborating together and learning from each other, we will be able to beat this pandemic and prepare for future ones.
Youth need to be given a seat on the table as partners and not just beneficiaries of government programs and be relied on to make decisions. No one should be left behind when centering marginalized groups in recovery processes, creating green jobs, sustainable cities, fair energy transitions and resilient economies. Innovative ideas should be focused on sustainable development and food value chains that can improve our immunity.
A key question that we pose to you,
”What should be the priority to ensure an inclusive economic recovery?”
More about this session can be found here.
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