CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Hello, everyone.
As Secretary-General Guterres and Prime Minister Holness have said, today we are hosting another joint meeting on financing for development.
I want to thank the Secretary-General for the support he has offered for these meetings, and the Prime Minister for his partnership on this initiative since last May.
In the last year, our world has faced a pandemic, a global economic crisis, and the continued crisis of climate change.
It goes without saying that these are very serious challenges on a very significant scale.
Take the global economic front alone:
Several countries have already defaulted, a significant number of emerging economies face serious fiscal challenges, and many developing countries are in debt distress. This comes on top of the economic effects of ongoing emergencies like climate change, which have only been made worse by the pandemic.
As a world, we cannot afford to turn away. Instead, we must learn from this crisis and together, set ourselves on a better path.
Last year Canada convened high-level meetings with Prime Minister Holness and Secretary-General Guterres to begin to shape our global response.
Today, we are continuing that work.
Our meeting is focused on 4 main areas – enhancing global liquidity, extending and expanding debt relief, larger reforms on debt relief, and eligibility for international assistance. It will also help inform important upcoming discussions at the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank, as well as in the G20 and G7.
Truly “building back better” from this pandemic means creating good jobs and growing clean, resilient economies.
It means ensuring that the legacy of this crisis isn’t one of rolling back progress for anyone. In fact, on that front, earlier this month, Canada launched a new Task Force on Women in the Economy to ensure that no one gets left behind. Because a better future is one where everyone has the chance to succeed.
Canada is focused on real solutions that will help everyone – including the world’s most vulnerable – recover from this crisis.
Together, through meetings like this, we can continue to build a brighter, more prosperous shared future.
We’re now happy to take your questions.