Poverty exacerbated economic recession - Prof Munasinghe

M.P. Muttiah

Professor Mohan Munasinghe delivering the Convocation Address at the Open University's convocation held at the BMICH said the world was facing multiple economic, social and environmental threats.

This is characterized by a "bubble" metaphor based on false expectations, where a few enjoy immediate gains while the vast majority would pay huge hidden costs in the future, he said.

Addressing on the theme "multiple global problems need integrated solutions: applying the sustainomics framework" he said the most urgent and visible problem was the economic collapse.

The collapse of the bubble in 2008 caused the global recession. It is estimated to contain 100 trillion dollar odd "toxic" assets.

He further said that a social bubble based on poverty and inequity continued to undermine the benefits of rapid economic growth of recent decades, excluding billions of poor from access to productive resources and basic necessities, like food, safe water and sanitation, energy, healthcare, shelter, and a clean environment.

In 2000, the top 20 percentile of world's population by income, consumed 60 times more than the poorest percentile. Poverty was now exacerbated by the economic recession, which was worsening the unemployment and access to survival needs, he said.

Prof. Munasinghe said the ongoing economic crisis had proved opportunities for world leaders to move in new directions. "Prompt action including appropriate investments, social safety nets and price policies could yield multiple dividends," he said.

He pointed out that the application of Action Impact Matrix (AIM) approach in Sri Lanka showed major climate vulnerabilities arising from food security, agriculture and water.

A more detailed agriculture model was applied to identify how past output changes in important crops like rice, and tea had depended on natural variations in temperature and rainfall.

Then a down-scaled regional climate model was used to make detailed temperature and precipitation specific to Sri Lanka. The combined results of both models showed significant adverse impacts on future rice cultivation affecting poor farmers in the dry zone.

Therefore, the Professor said, that adaptation measures were essential to protect national food security, protect livelihoods and reduce vulnerabilities of the rural poor in the dry zone.