Secretary-General Hails Approval of Resilience and Sustainability Trust, Saying It Must Be Immediately, Sufficiently Capitalized to Meet Crises

The following statement was issued by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

The Secretary-General congratulates Kristalina Georgieva and the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for approving the new Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) effective 1 May.

The RST is welcome news, especially for countries facing compounded crises, including the impact of the war in Ukraine.  The RST builds in a long-term perspective and will support developing countries and vulnerable middle-income countries in addressing issues such as climate change and the protracted COVID-19 pandemic, while also improving resilience to future shocks.  A long-term perspective is needed if we are to address not only the current three-dimensional crises, but retain hope of rescuing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Mindful of the current context, the RST must be sufficiently and immediately capitalized to meet this challenge.  At last week’s launch of the Global Crisis Response Group, the Secretary-General strongly encouraged donor contributions to the RST and the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, as well as re-channelling unused special drawing rights from countries with strong external positions to countries most in need of resources to build resilience.