Finance Ministers from various Commonwealth countries have stressed the need for systemic reform of the global financial architecture to enhance access to development financing for vulnerable countries.
This was according to a statement on Sunday by the Senior Communications Officer at the Commonwealth Secretariat, Snober Abbasi.
According to the statement, the ministers agreed for India to be the chair and Nigeria to be the deputy chair of the Finance Ministers Working Group.
This agreement was reached at the inaugural Commonwealth Finance Ministers High-Level Working Group Meeting in Washington D.C. on April 14, 2023, where finance ministers discussed national fiscal policies, measures for financial sustainability, eligibility criteria for development finance and potential reforms required for a more equitable financial architecture.
The minister also stressed that reforms must increase funding and consider the realities of vulnerability when allocating support to help vulnerable countries.
The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, said in her opening remark, “Our world faces overlapping, interlinked and accelerating economic, security and environmental challenges. They entwine and accelerate to amplify existing inequalities, threatening stability, resilience and development prospects.
“The need for ambitious, systemic change has never been greater. As the Commonwealth family, representing one-third of humanity, we are joining forces to call for reform of the global financial system to deliver an architecture that is multi-dimensional, fit-for-purpose and adaptive to emerging and existing challenges, to build and achieve resilience and achieve sustainable development.”
She highlighted that the Commonwealth’s Universal Vulnerability Index provides a solid basis to better target support for those who need it the most.
Also, the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, said, “The continued discriminatory treatment between the global north and the global south really cannot continue, especially in a poly-crisis. The time is now for action and to ensure that the global financial system is fit for purpose.”
