The African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) welcomes the early replenishment of the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s low-income country arm. The Covid-19 pandemic has sapped the resources of countries around the world, with the poorest countries worst affected. They face economic devastation and staggering debt which threatens to reverse what little progress they have made over the last decade. These countries urgently need help in the form of concessional loans and grants. For most poor countries, current levels of public debt do not allow them to go to the commercial capital market for loans. We therefore consider the early replenishment of IDA20 concessional and grant-making resources essential to support recovery from the pandemic and to begin to address pre-existing developmental challenges faced by low-income countries.
