NEWS

JANIC endorses the joint statement by DAC-CSO Reference Group on COVID-19

JANIC endorses the joint statement by DAC-CSO Reference Group, released on 7 April 2020, to calls for effective aid and development cooperation more than ever in an era of COVID-19 pandemic. DAC-CSO Reference Group is composed of CSOs with active engagement and advocacy work on the DAC.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the global community hard and fast. Within just a few months, over a million of the world’s population is infected and tens of thousands killed in almost all countries, with the potential for greater catastrophes in many countries yet to come. This crisis is unfolding and now ushering us into a deep and sustained global economic recession, in the context of disrupting impacts of systemic climate change, ongoing conflict and fragility in many countries, weak health and social security systems in the South, gender inequalities, and the potential threats to food security. COVID-19 is threatening progress for Agenda 2030, particularly for the billions of people in least developed countries.

Effective aid and development cooperation matter more than ever. The undersigned members of the DAC CSO Reference Group welcome the strong statements by the Chair of the DAC and the Director of the DCD, reminding the international community that a coordinated global response is in everyone’s interest. We fully support their call on all DAC donors to “protect existing ODA commitments, targeting support to health systems and vulnerable people in developing countries.”

All countries, including rich donor countries, are struggling to respond urgently to all dimensions of the crisis at home. But the highly-contagious and fatal character of the virus will clearly remain a global threat if any country is left behind. Thus, we fully support the urgent call by the prime minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed,1 for a strategy that is “global in design and application…global action guided by a sense of global solidarity.”

The members of the DAC CSO Reference Group offer their full and constructive collaboration with the DAC and its members in addressing the multiple dimensions of this crisis.

Read the joint statement here.