Mohieldin: Dealing with Political, Economic Crises Requires Flexibility in Facing Sudden Changes

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that the world is suffering from a trust crisis beside surpluses of crises that require decision-making institutions to do two interrelated things, first is to be guided by actual up-to-date detailed data, and second is to track major economic and political phenomenon, their general trends and their impact on current situations, and prepare for them with alternative scenarios with a high degree of flexibility for sudden changes.

Mohieldin stated, in an article in “Afaq Mostaqbaleya” magazine published by the Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center, that the world is going through a state of “Permacrisis” after it was exposed during 2022 to five shocks that confused it, including the repercussions of the Corona pandemic, the crisis in Ukraine, high inflation in energy and food prices, stagnation or sharp decline in growth, debt challenges in developing countries and emerging markets, in addition to a sixth economic crisis warned by global economy experts which is the trade wars between major economic powers.

“Climate change, geopolitical turmoil, cybersecurity risks, energy challenges, pandemics and infectious diseases top the list of threats to the world which must be addressed so that the international community can achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by the end of this decade.” Mohieldin said.

Mohieldin noted that dealing with the major confoundments to which the world is exposed requires investment in humans, especially with regard to education, health care and social security systems, beside dealing with the phenomenon of climate change through investments that contain its effects in the fields of mitigation and adaptation, and dealing with the file of loss and damage while providing them with the necessary long-term concessional financing in addition to investments.

He added that the rapid pace of urbanization while preventing informal areas and reducing unemployment requires huge investments in infrastructure and technology, while dealing with the spread of conflicts and its horrific humanitarian losses require strengthening the basis of governance, establishing justice and improving social security systems.

He stressed that the world has to benefit from the lessons of the Corona pandemic to deal with the outbreak of infectious epidemics and endemic and chronic diseases through early preparation and finding ways of prevention and treatment. He also confirmed the need to deal flexibly with the continuous change in the center of economic gravity globally and its shift towards the East due to the relative weight of the population and the sectors of economic activity, and ways to interact with this change with regard to the flow of trade, investment and labor movement, in addition to activating monetary and public finance policies and coordinating them to confront the disruption of major commodity markets such as food, energy, gold, raw materials, associated financial exchanges, and the shares of traded companies, and the volatility of bond and debt markets and their returns.

Mohieldin said that mastering the science of the new industrial revolution and keeping pace with it with an advanced structure of the digital economy, information technology and artificial intelligence innovations is necessary to deal with the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution and its impact on labor markets, trade, capital and income distribution.

Mohieldin highlighted the importance of investing in ways to deal with the aforementioned confoundations to enhance the chances of progress in the race of nations in light of the world’s transition towards a new world system that must be fairer and more efficient than the previous one.