Global South must intensify calls for global financial architecture reform – PM Phillips

Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d), the Honourable Mark Phillips affirmed that the “Global South must amplify its voice in calling for the reform of the global financial architecture to make it fit for purpose to meet the realities of the twenty-first century and beyond”.

Prime Minister Phillips made this assertion during his remarks at the High-Level Ministerial Session on Leadership for Sustainable Development in the time of Polycrisis, at The Energy and Resource Institute’s (TERI) 2024 World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS), being held in New Delhi, India from February 7-9, 2024.   

He underscored the importance of financing for sustainable development and the challenges that exist in relation to “vulnerable developing states inability to access development financing, concessional financing and Official Development Assistance (ODA) due to a unidimensional measure of development that is inefficient and insufficient as well as the lack of access to climate finance”.

Prime Minister Phillips also reiterated that as we approach the mid-point of the Decade of Action, in order to guarantee a sustainable future for current and future generations, bold leadership and urgent and transformative actions are essential to ensure that no one is left behind.

“The world is off track with respect to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Our progress has been hampered by multiple factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, food insecurity, energy security and the increase in conflicts across the world,” the Prime Minister stated. 

He also emphasised the importance of leadership, as being vital “to enable effective response to present and future crises, and to get the world back on track towards inclusive and sustainable development – leaving no one behind”.

Addressing the triple planetary crises related to climate, pollution and biodiversity loss, Prime Minister Phillips stressed that bold leadership and a shift in mindset, characterised by the “willingness to explore new and innovative solutions to the world’s problems, which includes the re-thinking of systems, institutions, processes and mechanisms to make them fit for purpose and premised on the principles of inclusivity, good governance, democracy, rule of law, equality and respect for human rights and justice” are imperative.

In this regard, the Prime Minister highlighted the strides Guyana has made in being a global leader in climate action and sustainable development in keeping with our international commitments to becoming a global model for the world in deploying forests for climate services, “with carbon credits sales for the period 2016 to 2030 already earning Guyana US$750m, fifteen per cent of which goes directly to Amerindian villages.

Moreover, he noted that “Guyana is playing a leading role in food security within CARICOM in supporting regional efforts to achieve the 25 x 25 initiative with the objective of reducing the region’s food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025”.