For Immediate Release: June 16, 2021
Contact: Hillary John, hjohn@skdknick.com

Washington, DC ― In case you missed it, momentum is growing among US and world leaders to use Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to provide economic relief and boost vaccine roll-out among low-income countries.

At President Biden’s first G7 summit this past week, SDRs — reserve assets that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) can use to help countries facing an economic downturn — emerged as a major focus. At the summit, the G7 countries agreed to a $650 billion allocation of SDRs, the largest issuance in history, to help countries that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

As leaders at home and abroad look to expand vaccine access around the world, SDRs could be key to reaching the funding needed to vaccinate 70 percent of the population in lower- and middle-income countries by the end of 2022 — at no added cost to rich countries.

World leaders speak out about the need to make SDRs a priority:

• “We are resolved to deepen our current partnership to a new deal with Africa, including by magnifying support from the International Monetary Fund for countries most in need to support our aim to reach a total global ambition of $100 billion.” — G7 Communiqué

• “The proposed [SDR] effort would further support health needs — including vaccinations — and help enable greener, more robust economic recoveries in vulnerable countries, and promote a more balanced, sustained, and inclusive global recovery.” — The White House

• “We got all the G7 members to agree to follow the movement we began in Paris on 18 May, which enables at least $100 billion in special drawing rights to go to the African continent. It’s an important step for more justice and an important step for helping the African continent in its emergence from the crisis and its economic and social response.” — French President Emmanuel Macron

• “We need to address the substantial financing gap for tests, treatments, critical supplies like oxygen and the health systems that enable testing, treatment and vaccination...If the world is to emerge from this grave crisis, it is essential that we work together to mobilize and direct resources to those countries in the greatest need — and that we do so now.” — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa

• “An allocation of new Special Drawing Rights at the IMF could enhance liquidity for low-income countries to facilitate their much-needed health and economic recovery efforts.” — US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen

• “On the $100 billion [for SDRs], is it enough? Let's be very clear, no it is not enough. We have a financial gap just to catch up with the impact of COVID for the continent of Africa of $285 billion. It is genuinely an all-hands-on-deck situation.” — IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva

• “I am encouraged by the growing consensus around the need for increased liquidity through the issuing of Special Drawing Rights by the International Monetary Fund — one year after we first called for this. I renew my call for the voluntary reallocation of unutilized SDRs to support vulnerable developing countries, including middle-income ones.” — UN Secretary-General António Guterres

• “This is a new start, a new deal for Africa.” — Senegalese President Macky Sall

Additionally, as COVID-19 spreads faster than the distribution of vaccines, leaders in the United States have pressured the Biden administration to pursue the use of SDRs as a cost-free tool to strengthen public health budgets and distribute vaccines worldwide.

In a letter to President Biden led by Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Tom Malinowski (NJ-07), and Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), over 40 lawmakers wrote:

• “We urge you to pursue additional steps to advance a bold, comprehensive strategy to vaccinate the world as quickly as possible. It is imperative that the United States act quickly and deploy every tool in our arsenal. Now is the time to build international cooperation and solidarity in ways we have never seen before, including using the full force of United States diplomacy, economic and commercial leadership, legal authorities, and membership in multilateral institutions. The fate of our own health and safety in the United States is inextricably connected to the wellbeing and protection of the most vulnerable among us worldwide.”

• “Support a new issuance of Special Drawing Rights — a cost-free International Monetary Fund reserve asset — to help strengthen public-health budgets worldwide and provide low-income countries with resources to import medical supplies and carry out vaccination campaigns while guaranteeing support through the State Department, USAID, and US membership at the WHO, UNICEF, and other agencies to help expand developing countries’ technical capacities and health infrastructure to universally administer vaccines.”

Wealthy countries have administered more than 80 percent of global vaccines, while low-income countries have received just 0.3 percent.

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