The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently warned that the global cost of living crisis is pushing an additional 71 million people in the world’s poorest countries into extreme poverty.
A report showed that an analysis of 159 developing countries showed that the surge in key commodity prices this year was already slamming parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Balkans, Asia and elsewhere.
Calling for direct action, the UNDP is seeking direct cash handouts to the most vulnerable and wanted richer nations to extend and widen out the Debt Service Suspension Initiative they set up to help poor countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This cost of living crisis is tipping millions of people into poverty and even starvation at breathtaking speed,” UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said. “With that, the threat of increased social unrest grows by the day.”
It said that targeted cash transfers by governments would be more “equitable and cost-effective” than blanked subsidies on things like energy and food prices that richer parts of society tend to benefit more from.
The last two years of the pandemic have also shown that cash-strapped countries would need support from the global community to fund such schemes. One such way is by extending the G20-led Debt Service Suspension Initiative by two more years and expanding it to at least 85 countries from the current 73.
The world is already bracing for the impact of the global cost of living crisis. Instead of staying in denial and hoping that we won’t be affected, developing and vulnerable countries like the Philippines should already be preparing for it by putting in place the necessary programs that can prevent even more Filipinos from falling into extreme poverty. Preparations to implement the UNDP recommendation of targeted cash transfers will already need to be in place if our government isn’t going to be surprised if it becomes necessary.
The warnings have already been raised. It is now up to our government to be ensure that the country and its people are ready for any eventuality.*
