UN says Ukraine war threatens to devastate many poor nations

A U.N. task force warns that Russia’s war on Ukraine threatens to devastate the economies of many developing countries that are now facing even higher food and energy costs and increasingly difficult financial conditions

Russia’s war on Ukraine threatens to devastate the economies of many developing countries that are now facing even higher food and energy costs and increasingly difficult financial conditions, a U.N. task force warned Wednesday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres released the report saying that the war is “supercharging” a crisis in food, energy and finance in poorer countries that were already struggling to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and a lack of access to adequate funding for economic recovery.

“We are now facing a perfect storm that threatens to devastate the economies of many developing countries,” Mr. Guterres said at a news conference. “As many as 1.7 billion people - one-third of whom are already living in poverty - are now highly exposed to disruptions in food, energy and finance systems that are triggering increases in poverty and hunger.”

Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of the U.N. agency promoting trade and development who coordinated the task force, said those people live in 107 countries that have “severe exposure” to at least one dimension of the crisis - rising food prices, increasing energy prices, and tightening financial conditions.

In these countries, the report says, people struggle to afford healthy diets, imports are essential to meet food and energy needs, and “debt burdens and tightening resources limit government’s ability to cope with the vagaries of global financial conditions.”

The report says 69 of the countries, with a population of 1.2 billion people, face a “perfect storm” and are severely or significantly exposed to all three crises. They include 25 countries in Africa, 25 in Asia and the Pacific, and 19 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24, prices were already on the rise, “but the war has made a bad situation worse,” Mr. Guterres said.