Andrew Hewitt, executive director of Oxfam Australia, says that the global financial crisis is having a serious impact on the world’s poorest people. A World Bank background paper for last weekend’s G20 finance ministers’ meeting says that between 1.4 million and 2.8 million babies will die as a result of the crisis. Specifically, infant deaths will be between 200,000 and 400,000 per year higher over the next 7 years than they would have been without the crisis.
There are five negative trends affecting developing countries as a result of the global financial crisis: reduced aid flows as a result of cutbacks from wealthier countries; collapsing global trade which is reducing exports from emerging and developing countries by 1 percent; declining commodity prices; shrinking private capital flows to emerging markets; and falling remittances from international workers back to their home developing countries.
Andrew Hewitt says that we need to look beyond our own backyard and recognise the need to prioritise helping developing countries. He says that aid budgets need to be protected to ensure the availability of funding for social protection programs. And he also says that rich countries need to resist any urges towards protectionism. For us, the global financial crisis is a matter of inconvenience, but for many it is a matter of life or death.