Letter to governments of the G20 nations

K.Y. Amoako, President of the Africa Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), has joined African leaders and institutions in lending strong support to an initiative calling for coordinated global leadership to address the health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19.

African leaders including Dr Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, HE Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone, and Hon Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister of Ghana and Chair of the World Bank Development Committee, joined global leaders in supporting a letter to the G20 leaders urging it to support health measures in poorer African, Asian and Latin America cities and fragile communities.

The letter, was written by Erik Berglöf, Director of LSE's Institute of Global Affairs, Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister and Jeremy Farrar, a medical researcher and Director of the Wellcome trust.

Among other measures, the authors call on the international community to waive this year's poorer countries' debt repayments, including 44 billion U.S. dollars due from Africa, and to consider future debt relief to allow poor countries the fiscal space to tackle the health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

African support for the letter and its central message has also come from: HE Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana; HE Joyce Banda, former President of Malawi; Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa; HE Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia; HE John Kuffour, former President of Ghana.

Global support has also come from: Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand (1999-2008), former UNDP Administrator (2009-2017); Ban Ki-Moon, former UN Secretary General (2007-2016), Deputy Chair of The Elders; Joseph Stiglitz, former Chief Economist of the World Bank (1997-2000), Nobel Laureate for Economic Sciences (2001), Professor at Columbia University; Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Board Chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, former Finance Minister of Nigeria (2011-2015).

The writers stated: "We agree with African and developing country leaders that given the existential threat to their economies, the increasing disruption to livelihoods and education and their limited capacity to cushion people and companies, that at least 150 billion U.S. dollars of overall support will be needed for health, social safety nets, and other urgent help."