The world desperately needs a fairer economy – here’s how we can make that happen | Mia Mottley and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Inflation and the climate crisis are hitting developing economies hardest. Trade is the key to helping them

• Mia Mottley is prime minister of Barbados. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is director-general of the World Trade Organization

The Covid-19 pandemic derailed economies everywhere, and in most developing countries incomes remain well below pre-pandemic levels. Inflation, made worse by the war in Ukraine, is particularly painful for low-income and vulnerable countries, where essentials like food and energy dominate household budgets. Higher interest rates are exacerbating debt distress across much of the developing world, squeezing public and private investment and paring back growth. To compound this, the climate crisis is hitting the very countries that contribute least to the problem, and which have the most limited means to cope.

Already, we are seeing the reversal of hard-won development gains. The World Bank estimates that the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have pushed up to 95 million more people into extreme poverty. The World Food Programme projects that almost 350 million people may be food insecure in 2023, more than double the number in 2020. In the wake of the pandemic, unemployment is higher, gender gaps are wider and the share of young people with neither jobs nor sufficient education has risen, according to the International Labour Organization.

Mia Amor Mottley, SC, MP is prime minister of Barbados. Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is director-general of the World Trade Organization