In a country reeling with perpetual partisan polarization, the loss of global leadership credentials of the United States and subsequent dependency by poor nations on developed economies as a result of COVID-19 can only be regulated by the adoption by the U.S. Senate of Bill S. 4139 that encourages support by international financial institutions to plug the effects of the COVID–19 pandemic in developing countries.
But what is Bill S. 4139 and how will its adoption save millions in the developing world? The S.4139 bill seeks to grant special drawing rights to countries so that they can meet the capacity to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In its summary, the bill proposes:
• debt relief for developing countries to international financial institutions
• protection of developing countries’ health care spending or other spending related to their responses to COVID-19, and
• emergency financial resources called special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund
Why is the developing world, particularly Africa, of concern? By April 20, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported that Africa had only 22,303 cases in just five countries (Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, and Ghana). Right now, we may as well imagine how the situation changed in terms of cases. A literal flood. From a third-world perspective, the situation is gloomy. Back then, the International Monetary Fund Report in 2020 predicted a global economic downturn, and Oxfam International warned that half a billion people could be shoved into poverty. I think more than double this number have already drowned.
A cursory glance at the recent developments in Nigeria would help us understand how the region’s economies have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. The violence, the job losses, the excruciating hunger, and gritty poverty, are not phenomena endemic and restricted to Nigeria. Nigeria is just a symptom of widespread suffering. Many other countries with even weaker economies than Nigeria are at risk. While physical effects are part of the quotidian life of every household in sub-Saharan Africa, the threat of population displacement, with many migrants during the depths of the Mediterranean, is a reality. Yet, all these scenarios describe the scale of costs that would otherwise be avoided through investment in global public health, particularly those in less developed economies.
For a continent that suffers from numerous other problems, special drawing rights play a mitigating role. In July 2020, Nitta Bhalla reported that more than 40,000 people in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia were evicted through coercion. These people included women and children. These people and a lot more others across the world must fight on two, or more fronts.
They must ride threats of adverse weather conditions while risking themselves to contracting the virus. While charities try to plug the effects of opportunistic incidences in Nigeria, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and many other places, these efforts are just not enough for a continent overwhelmed by disease, hunger and other natural disasters. An effortless gesture by the U.S. Congress is the panacea to these and other problems in the developing world. Are U.S. policymakers prepared to compound the situation in Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and that of the rest of the developing world by not utilizing special drawing rights?
To the extent that only the U.S. Congress can authorize the International Monetary Fund to grant special drawing rights, the reluctance, delay or complete failure to achieve this would mean a heavy burden on global economies.
Bill S.4139 does not burden American taxpayers in any way. Our proposal, then, to the U.S. Senate is not the same as scaling the heights of Everest: pass Bill S.4139 and, for the time frame the bill prescribes, ensure transparency among beneficiaries of the special drawing rights while society is exorcized of the tenacious virus. Not only will the move display care for humanity, but it will also broadcast U.S. credentials as a global leader even further.
Phillip Sibanda Nyaku, MA, is currently pursuing an MPA and a doctorate in political science at Idaho State University. His academic interests are in comparative politics and international relations, public administration and American politics.