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A global crisis needs a global response, and Australia should stand up and show leadership.
From: Jubilee Australia and Australian Council for International Development
Dear Prime Minister, 5 June 2009
On June 24-26 the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development will take place in New York. We urge you to give this Conference the political weight it deserves by participating yourself, recognizing the Conference as an opportunity to advocate for important reforms of the global financial system.
Your recent article in The Monthly demonstrated aptly the unprecedented global dimensions of this crisis that will hit the more impoverished nations of the South as well as the wealthier countries of the North. The statistics on this, many of which you quote in your article, are compelling: an additional 53 million people living under $2 a day (World Bank estimate); 51 million people are predicted to lose their jobs in 2009 (ILO); shrinking export growth (16.8% in Asia, 12.5% in Africa, and 10% in Latin America). Already, 130-155 million people have been pushed into poverty in 2008 from the food and fuel crises, 70 percent of whom are women. Moreover, the current financial and economic crisis comes in the context of ongoing food, water, climate and energy crises that have exacerbated the burdens and sorrows of the developing world.
We acknowledge the attempt by the G20 Leaders to reach consensus on some immediate measures, and your important role in helping broaden the conversation to this extent. However we believe that the responses proposed by the G20 are not sufficient to address the root causes of what are multiple, linked crises of food security, climate change, financial markets and sustainable development.
There can be no recovery from the global economic crisis without a plan involving the developing world. This global crisis needs a global response involving all societies that are affected by it. The UN is a unique forum... read
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