Beirut, March 30 (IANS): Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said that indebted countries need to take actions to cut their debts for a speedy recovery from Covid-19.

Aboul-Gheit's remarks came during the Arab Forum for Sustainable Development 2021 (AFSD) which kicked off here on Monday, reports Xinhua news agency.

He urged states, organizations and the private sector to provide additional resources to achieve sustainable development.

Dubbed "Accelerating Progress on the 2030 Agenda post-Covid", the forum was held in partnership with the League of Arab States (LAS) and hosted virtually by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

The organization's Executive Secretary Rola Dashti reiterated calls of the ESCWA for innovative solutions to reduce or freeze countries' debts, and for the activation of cooperation mechanisms between Arab countries.

According to the ESCWA, the pandemic has impacted food insecurity, which increased dramatically, affecting 52 million people.

Women and girls are also at an increased risk of violence.

In addition, rampant unemployment among young people and women has become the highest worldwide at 23 per cent, at a time when the top 10 per cent of the Arab region's adult population owns 76 per cent of the wealth.