Indonesia’s Jokowi Appointed as Member of UN Global Crisis Response Group

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and five other world leaders have been appointed as members of the Champion Group of the Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) following the announcement by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday, April 13.

The other leaders comprise Senegal’s President Macky Sall, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen,
and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Led by the UN chief, the GCRG aims to develop coordinated solutions to the interlinked crises in collaboration with governments, the multilateral system, and sectors. The group will carry out advocacy to overcome a food, energy, and finance crisis globally.

On March 14, Guterres established the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy, and Finance, facilitated by a Task Team in the UN Secretariat, reporting to a Steering Committee involving all UN agencies and international financial institutions. The group has the role to mobilize solutions and develop strategies and recommendations to help all countries to weather the interlinked crises.

Also read: Indonesia’s President Jokowi to Address United Nations Assembly for the First Time

According to the UN website, the war in Ukraine is setting in motion a three-dimensional crisis - on food, energy, and finance - that is producing alarming cascading effects on a world economy already battered by Covid-19 and climate change, according to the new findings of the GCRG.

As two of the world’s breadbaskets, Russia and Ukraine provide around 30 percent of the wheat and barley we consume. Russia remains the world’s top natural gas exporter, second-largest oil exporter, and a significant producer of fertilizers.

The war has severely affected food, energy, and financial markets, sending commodity prices to soar at a record high. The global economy is forecast to contract by one percent in 2022.

Preliminary analysis suggests that as many as 1.7 billion people in 107 economies are exposed to at least one of three risks, mostly in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. When combined with the already devastating impacts of the Covid-19 crisis and climate change, the exposure to just one risk is dire enough to cause debt distress, food shortages, and blackouts.

(Writer: Dandy Bayu Bramasta | Editor: Inten Esti Pratiwi)

Source: https://www.kompas.com/tren/read/2022/04/15/113000965/jokowi-dipercaya-sekjen-pbb-jadi-anggota-gcrg-apa-itu-gcrg-?page=all#page2.