Development Finance International
May-December 2025 (ongoing) - Eastern and Southern Africa Regional and National CRI reports
Building on the successful launch of the Eastern and Southern Africa regional report on Commitment to Reducing Inequality in April at the IMF/WB Spring Meetings, DFI and its partners (the All Africa Conference of Churches, ACT-Church of Sweden, FELM-FInland, Norwegian Church Aid, Oxfam and Save the Children) have been continuing to roll out the report, as well as more detailed country profiles of 13 countries which present the practical policy options for reducing inequality in much more detail. The regional report was relaunched at the SADC People’s Summit and Festival in Antsirabe, Madagascar on 16 August. The SADC presentation is available on request from DFI, and the regional report here. Launches led by national anti-inequality coalitions have taken place in Malawi, Nepal, Tanzania, Zambia; and are planned soon in Angola, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mozambique, Namibia, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
20 October – Washington - DFI Paper on Integrating Inequality Reduction into DSAs
The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung commissioned DFI to write a paper on how to integrate inequality reduction into IMF/World Bank debt sustainability. The paper presents a detailed, practical and feasible approach. It establishes the case for including inequality reduction in DSAs, then shows how to 1) identify eligible countries; 2) estimate spending needs and their inequality impacts; and 3) calculate multiplier effects on growth and tax revenues. The paper also identifies areas where more work is needed, especially in analyzing the impact of non-fiscal policies on inequality reduction, so they can be incorporated into forecasts. It shows that the BWIs can easily include an anti-inequality module in current reviews of the Low-Income Countries Debt Sustainability Framework (LIC-DSF), and in the Staff Guidance Note and tools for the Sovereign Risk and Debt Sustainability Framework (SRDSF), similar to their existing climate modules. The paper argues that these reviews should emphasize the high positive multipliers SDG spending can have on growth and, if concessionally funded, SDG 10 can be reached without compromising debt sustainability.
16 October – Washington - DFI Participates in Technical Meeting on UNCTAD Borrowers’ Club
DFI was invited to a technical meeting of experts, to advise on the technical preparations for the UNCTAD Borrowers’ Club, which was mandated in the Compromiso de Sevilla of the Financing for Development conference in July 2025. The meeting was held inthe sidelines of the IMF-World Bank meetings in Washington and followed a meeting of developing country ministers on 15 October which strongly endorsed the creation of a Borrowers’ Club. DFI has already been advising UNCTADs pilot phase of the Club for a year and presented suggestions arising from the positive lessons of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries’ Finance Ministers’ Network (1998-2014) as well as the OIF Lower-Income Francophone Finance Ministers’ Network (2014-2020). The meeting made clear that the Club will be governed and led by ministers of the participating countries and is intended to reinforce country voice and capacity at ministerial and technical level, through ministerial meetings, inter-regional workshops and information exchange, and South-South capacity-building.
12 October – Washington – ONE/Experts Letter Advocates one of DFI’s Key Suggestions
24 top global economic experts have published an open letter defining their top priorities to resolve the current global South debt crisis. The experts were the members of the three major global commissions which reported on how to resolve the debt crisis in 2024: the Jubilee Commission, the UNSG’s Expert Review, and Healthy Debt on a Healthy Planet. Their headline recommendation was that all debt relief deals should aim to reduce debt service burdens to 10% of budget revenue, a policy position DFI has been suggesting since 2022. The letter was coordinated by the ONE campaign and covered in the Guardian on 12 October.
Washington - Debt Service Watch 2025 Briefing and Database Released
The latest DSW Briefing shows that in 2025, debt service is absorbing 45% of budget revenue and 35% of spending across the global South, even worse than in 2024 and the worst since records began. It exceeds total spending on education, health and social protection combined by 20%, and 5.2 billion of the world's citizens live in coutries where debt service exceeds social spending. There has been no progress on debt relief since last October, with current agreements leaving countries paying 76% of their revenue in debt service. Meanwhile, due to lack of debt relief and aid cuts, millions more children are out of school, and millions more people are dying of HIV/AIDS and hunger. The briefing makes four suggestions for ways forward: 1) setting a target of 10% debt service/revenue for all debt relief agreements; 2) cancelling debt service above this level in a 10-year "Jubilee holiday" for poorer countries; 3) taking more radical measures to reduce borrowing costs for wealthier countries; and 4) immediate 5-year debt service cancellation when countries are hit by natural disasters. It urges the South African G20 presidency to pursue genuine debt relief, ask like-minded creditors to cancel their debt service, and support a Borrowers' Club.
- 30 September – Regional Workshop on the Cost of Debt in LAC and the 2025 Jubilee
- 17 July – Durban - Oxfam Africa Inequality Briefing Launched to G20 Finance Ministers
- 19 April -Tackling Extreme Inequality at Its Epicentre – a Policy Agenda for Eastern and Southern Africa
- 1 November - 2024 Debt Service Watch Summary Database Released
