Poorer countries are facing a potentially disastrous cash crunch as aid and capital flows dry up. But innovative financing models can, with international support, bridge the gap. Report by Neil Ford.
There is no doubt that progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been hampered by the perfect storm of difficulties that has hit the African continent: the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdown measures, climate change, the war in Ukraine and constrained donor support.
Yet it is vital that financing for investment and measures that support the attainment of the SDGs continue if the aims are not to fade from view.
The pandemic had a negative effect on living standards, driving up both unemployment and underemployment, as well as increasing poverty. Average economic growth among the least developed countries of 2.5% over 2020–22 was a long way short of the 7% called for under SDG 8.
At the same time, the global poverty rate…
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