Special Drawing Rights

Local Project

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that can give nations emergency funds in times of crisis. These are called ‘special drawing rights’. To help with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IMF gave US$660 billion of these funds to countries around the world..

These were particularly useful for Majority World countries who needed the funds more than wealthier nations, which could afford to tackle the crisis with their existing resources. But wealthier nations, including in Europe, still have the funds sitting unused with their central banks.

Speed is of the essence to tackle the climate and ecological emergency, so all resources must be put to good use. This is why many countries in the Majority World argue that the special drawing rights held by wealthy nations should be redistributed to help tackle the emergency in poorer and more climate-exposed countries. This could be done by central banks giving their special drawing rights to multilateral development banks. These are special banks set up by countries to help invest in the development of societies.

The idea is catching on. But there needs to be more political will for it to happen and generosity from wealthier nations. These nations keep their special drawing rights in reserve in case of emergency. But the emergency is here and it's happening to other countries.

GAMEPLAY NOTES

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