Imran’s IFAD speech

Prime Minister Imran Khan sees a grim image of the future if the world fails to act together to address the global economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. The PM has, in his virtual address at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) moot, reminded the world that some 600 million people suffer from hunger, and 100 million will be pushed into poverty because of the impact that the pandemic has had on their lives. Even more worrying is that some estimates put the numbers even higher.

The IFAD is a UN agency that funds several types of agriculture-related projects. Although much smaller than other international financial institutions, its work is critical to addressing many of the root causes of food insecurity. That is why, while some may find PM’s ‘we will perish or survive together’ comment a little dramatic, it is a sentiment that needs to be expressed. This is because, as we have seen, poverty and civil strife in one country can destabilise an entire region.

Global agriculture was already under threat due to climate change, overfarming, war and government mismanagement. Throwing Covid-19 into the mix made everything else go sideways. PM Imran has noted that the crisis is such that military and economic adversaries must come together to sort out the problems facing agriculture for the benefit of their own people and the people of the world. This ties into his speeches at various international forums since the pandemic began, where he called for increased debt relief and assistance from wealthier countries to keep the developing world from falling into an inexorable downward spiral.

At his IFAD address, the PM has floated an ambitious five-point agriculture development agenda for the world that would, in any other year, seem easily agreeable for most countries. But his warning that developing countries need $4.3 trillion to recover from the pandemic and achieve the sustainable development goals should also be read with another report released this week which says global public debt went up by $11 trillion last year. Even rich countries don’t have the budgetary wiggle room to help poor ones without risking their own stability. On that note, it would appear his ‘doom and gloom’ prediction was actually understated.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2021.

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