HAMBURG, Germany, June 29, 2026: Sierra Leone’s Vice President, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, has called for a fundamental overhaul of the international financial architecture, urging multilateral development banks to establish a Global South Shock Absorption Facility to help vulnerable economies withstand geopolitical and supply chain disruptions before they trigger economic crises.
Speaking during the high-level panel, “Navigating the Hormuz Crisis: Forging a Collective Response,” at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference 2026, the Vice President argued that existing global financing mechanisms are too slow and inflexible to protect developing nations from external shocks.
Addressing an audience that included senior policymakers, development finance leaders and international institutions, he warned that the consequences of geopolitical conflicts are disproportionately borne by low-income countries. “For the Global South, an oil shock is never just an oil shock. It becomes a food shock, a fiscal shock, and ultimately a human development shock,” he said, noting that rising fuel, food, fertiliser and transport costs quickly undermine national budgets and development gains across Africa and other developing regions.
Vice President Juldeh Jalloh urged the international community to move beyond crisis response and invest in long-term economic resilience by strengthening food and energy security while reforming global financial systems to respond at the speed of modern crises. He called on institutions such as the African Development Bank and the World Bank to develop pre-arranged financing instruments that would enable countries to absorb external economic shocks before they escalate into humanitarian and fiscal emergencies.
“We must shift from financing recovery after crises to financing resilience before they occur,” he said, arguing that resilient financing should become a central pillar of sustainable development.
His proposal, presented alongside global leaders including United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Reem Alabali-Radovan, UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo, UK Minister of State for International Development and Africa Baroness Jennifer Chapman, and African Development Bank President Dr. Sidi Ould Tah, adds to growing African calls for a more equitable and responsive global financial system capable of protecting developing economies from increasingly interconnected global shocks.