NEW YORK, OCTOBER 11 – Against the background of a “perfect storm” caused by th COVID-19 and extreme poverty increasing again for the first time in a generation, Italy called upon all Countries to increase and intensify global cooperation to eradicate all forms of poverty.
“As recalled, the EU and its Member States are already the biggest Government Development Assistance Provider (ODA). In 2021, Italy has increased by 34.5% its ODA in real terms in value, maintaining priority for the most vulnerable and least developed countries, and provided 68,8% of its ODA as core contributions to multilateral organizations, including most recently by increasing core resources to the UN Funds and Programs”, the Italian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Maurizio Massari, told a joint meeting of the Second Committee and the Economic and Social Council.
In particular, said Massari, Italy has committed to allocating 4 billion USD (20% of our share of Special Drawing Rights) to help those countries most in need, 1.4 billion of which will be channelled into the FMI’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust. The Ambassador made a point of recalling the High Level Political Forum Ministerial Declaration, which Italy co-facilitated and that was adopted last July: “We all committed to ‘targeted measures and partnerships related to poverty eradication’ linked to all areas of the 2030 Agenda. Recalling the theme of this year’s 2nd Committee, it is now time to transform this political commitment into action. This will be a critical area, also heading towards the SDG Summit”. (@OnuItalia).