Pakistan seeks revising global financing criteria for SDGs succour

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has called for urgent international support to help middle-income countries deal with the challenges that are obstructing them in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

"The time is now for the UN development system, the international community, the global economic ecosystem and the private sector to come together in support of the efforts of middle-income countries," a statement, cited acting Pakistan permanent

representative to the UN Aamir Khan telling a high-level on the situation of such countries.

The meeting, convened by the UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir was held under the theme, “Finetuning the development system approach to address the needs of MICs [middle-income countries]”.

The message seems an effective demand to help convincing global economic leaders into revisiting the criteria set for extending financial resources to support inclusive growth amid the world-changing event of coronavirus.

"It is […] imperative that we recognise multiple dimensions of the vulnerabilities of MICs, in the criteria for accessing concessional resources of finance.” Khan also emphasised technology transfer and bridging the digital divide would be key for developing countries to improve performance.

“While the G-20 countries’ debt service suspension initiative was welcome, more than forty percent of the MICs have been excluded from many forms of assistance for pandemic response,” said the envoy. “Of those eligible, only half of the middle-income countries are participating due to the fear of downgrading by credit rating agencies that might result in the loss of access to private external financing.”

“Clearly,” he added, “concessional finance, debt relief and restructuring, with the participation of all bilateral, multilateral and private creditors were required to augment efforts by these countries to overcome their multifaceted challenges.”

In a report, Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Pakistan is among the countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have established clear SDG coordination structures. Each of the 32 line ministries in Pakistan have been assigned specific SDG goals and indicators depending on their function, it said in an April report.

According to the ADB said the country’s project performance related to sustainable development goals dropped to 58 percent in 2018–2020 from 70 percent in 2017–2019 due to poor performance in the public sector management and water sectors.

The main factors affecting performance included inadequate project ownership and commitment, weak implementation capacity, and substantial implementation delays and cost overruns, ADB said in the 2021 annual evaluation review.

The sustainable development goals are a collection of 17 designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”. “The challenging political environment and a succession of boom-and-bust economic cycles have hampered Pakistan’s development progress,” said ADB.

Khan said MICs are home to almost 70 percent of the global poor. The coronavirus pandemic has hit many of them hard, he said. Crippling debt, global economic inequalities and vulnerability to the effects of climate change and natural disasters, stunt prospects for growth in the lower echelon of middle income countries, he added.

"If we are to build back better from the pandemic our first priority should be equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine for all,” the foreign envoy said adding that intellectual property rights and export controls should not prevent countries from saving lives.