Gallagher Writes on Countries Hit Hardest by COVID-19
Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy and Director of the Global Development Policy Center at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published an op-ed in Open Democracy on the global economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the developing countries hit hardest.
Gallagher and co-author Richard Kozul-Wright, director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, argue that the global trading system has historically favored profit of major players over the health, wealth and happiness of the many. As a result, a number of developing countries are on the verge of default due to the global economic devastation caused by COVID-19. The two lay out four steps the international community can take to give developing countries struggling during this financial crisis the fiscal and policy space they need to combat the crisis and promote economic recovery.
An excerpt:
Once again, the international regimes for trade and finance have revealed their inability to prepare for such shocks and to mobilise a rapid and commensurate response for vulnerable countries and communities. With an estimated $2 to $3 trillion payments shortfall facing developing countries over the next eighteen months, the liquidity support, debt relief and development finance they need to help navigate the crisis and begin to recover has been woefully inadequate.
The full op-ed can be found here.
Kevin Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, where he directs the Global Development Policy Center. He is author or co-author of six books, including most recently, The China Triangle: Latin America’s China Boom and the Fate of the Washington Consensus. Read more about him here.