Brazil’s president tells UN that Western organisations are failing developing nations
Addressing the general assembly, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva says: ‘When institutions reproduce inequalities, they are part of the problem’Lula said the recently expanded Brics, the emerging-market alliance, would be ‘a force working for a more equitable global economy’United NationsIgor Patrickin New YorkPublished: 3:37am, 20 Sep, 2023Why you can trust SCMP
The failure of economic governance by Western-led organisations had led to the recent expansion of the Brics emerging-markets group, Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
In his first speech at the UN since his election last October, Lula criticised the inertia of developing countries in not pushing back harder, saying that “when institutions reproduce inequalities, they are part of the problem and not the solution”.
Lula specifically called out the International Monetary Fund, which made US$160 billion available in special drawing rights to European countries in 2022 while African countries only received US$34 billion. The instrument, created by the fund in 1969, works to supplement the official reserves of member countries.