Development Finance International

To support the debt workstream of FSD Conference preparation, FES and UNFSDO organised the latest in a series of meetings to gather high-quality policy proposals to maximise debt sustainability and fund SDG investments. Matthew Martin spoke in Session 1: Sustainable and responsible borrowing and lending, and debt crisis prevention. He emphasised that we are way beyond the stage where short-term rescheduling or reprofiling of debt service will work (only Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have a short-term debt service problem this could resolve), and stressed the need to cancel debt service for countries hit by natural disasters; reform DSAs so that they include top-priority SDG spending needs and their positive effects on growth, agree in UNCAC to prevent enforcement of predatory debt or restructuring agreements, and enhance accountability of debt policies to parliaments and citizens in the global North and South. The discussion also focussed on reforming credit ratings, regulating bond issuance, and the need for a Framework Debt Convention to enhance the UN’s role in norm-setting on debt issues.