Most of the developed nations will move out of the current coronavirus pandemic crisis soon because of good governance, strong financial bases and political harmony. They are cooperating with each other in this hour of crisis. The problems will remain in nations afflicted by poor governance, lack of required systems, corrupt practices, political turmoil and unrealistic rivalries among themselves. Here, the aid given by the global donors to help fight poverty may not be fully deployed towards poverty alleviation.
Pakistan, India and Bangladesh constitute one region. It is hosting a significantly large share of multidimensional poor compared to other regions. The countries of this region are not willing to sit together for the common cause of defeating poverty in the region. One wonders if the region really gained independence in 1947. While the developed countries are putting their heads together to effectively deal with economic and unemployment crises and the global donors are preparing plans to allocate aid to poor countries to ease their sufferings, the nations of the South Asia region are only calculating the amount of aid and the ways to get more.
While the EU has held many consultative meetings on their common cause, the countries under SAARC have been sitting back. The approach of the Islamic bloc to the crisis is hardly different from SAARC regions.
FARHAT ALI
(Former President,Overseas Investors Chambers of Commerce and Industry)