G20 countries pledge to return vulnerable countries $ 100 billion of the global amount of $ 650 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to face the crisis caused by the pandemic , according to the statement released after their summit in Rome.
“We welcome recent pledges worth around $ 45 billion as a step towards a total global ambition of $ 100 billion in voluntary contributions for countries most in need,” the leaders said. . The G20 countries, which had so far never agreed on an amount to be returned to developing countries, are thus following in the footsteps of the G7 leaders, who had already set as a target the sum of 100 billion dollars to redistribute in particular to the African continent.
SDRs are distributed according to each country’s quota in the IMF. So in fact, the biggest part goes to the richest countries. On paper, Africa would only benefit from $ 34 billion, hence the idea of some developed countries to donate their share to the most vulnerable.
Canada will distribute to developing countries 20% of its special drawing rights issued by the IMF to support the post-COVID economic recovery, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced on Saturday.
Previously, France had also committed to “redirect 20% of the money it receives from the IMF to the African continent”, according to the announcement made by President Emmanuel Macron.
“If all the great powers do like France, then we will achieve” the objective of returning 100 billion dollars to Africa, he declared in September.
A similar pledge of 20% of its SDR has been made by the UK, and Japan has pledged $ 4 billion.
Finally Sunday, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, whose country is not part of the G20, also announced that Madrid “will allocate[it] 20% of its SDRs ”to developing countries.