There is growing global concern about the debt crisis in the global south, and debt related challenges continue to be a central topic in multilateral discussions. The demand for reforming the international financial architecture is gaining momentum, with nearly 50 world leaders advocating for efforts to achieve this shared objective. This reflects a broad consensus on the need for systemic changes to better manage debt while ensuring development progress. Civil society should play a critical role in increasing pressure on national governments, and regional and
global institutions, to advance this agenda.

Figure 2: Finance and debt-related topics in the United Nations General Assembly speeches by number of countries and share by country group in percentage (2023)

Source: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), A World of Debt: A Growing Burden to Global Prosperity

Beyond those who are worried about debt, we know that there are many countries, particularly in the global south, supporting the need for debt architecture reform:

The Group of 77 and China

The G77 and China have consistently supported the establishment of a multilateral legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring since 2015. In January 2024, the G77 and China met in Kampala, Uganda, and restated their call for “an improved global sovereign debt architecture with the meaningful participation of developing countries, allowing for fair, balanced and development-oriented treatment”.

The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)

AOSIS has been one of the leading advocates for debt architecture reform, calling for a debt workout mechanism for countries most at risk of debt distress: “Countries need to prevent crises, find solutions, and there must be debt workout mechanisms for the most at-risk.” Also, the group has historically called for “the design of new and the enhancement of existing financial instruments to provide debt relief including through debt cancellation, debt suspensions, debt rescheduling and restructuring”.

The African Group

In July 2024, the African Group at the United Nations called for reform of the global financial architecture, as well as for addressing “debt distress through enhanced debt sustainability measures, including relief, suspension and cancellation” including “the establishment of a global legal framework”. The African Group also reinforced the call for reform in their input into the FfD4 elements paper when calling to “Create a multilateral sovereign debt workout mechanism” and “Establish a global debt authority”. This call comes in response to the severe debt crisis
plaguing African nations, which threatens to trigger more defaults, hinder Africa’s development, and jeopardise the achievement of the SDGs.

Other countries

The call by the African Group is also supported by individual countries in the continent, like Zambia, or country groups, like the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which included in their input into the elements paper for FfD4 the proposal to “establish a comprehensive and transparent international debt resolution framework under the auspices of the United Nations” or a “debt workout mechanism under UN auspices”, respectively. Similarly, the input into the elements paper by Pakistan, Egypt, and Nigeria also proposes the creation of a multilateral sovereign debt workout mechanism, to initiate the negotiations on a multilateral legal framework for debt restructuring, and the establishment of a global debt authority to “oversee the multilateral sovereign debt workout mechanism and promote or implement other substantive changes of a statutory and contractual nature in sovereign debt management”. Similarly, the Like- Minded Group for Middle-Income Countries and Brazil also highlight the need to develop “a more effective debt crisis resolution mechanism”. Mexico supports the establishment of an automatic mechanism to suspend debt service after “natural disasters”. Other countries, including creditors like Spain, Norway, and Germany, support specific reforms on domestic  legislation, climate resilient debt clauses, responsible lending and borrowing principles, or debt transparency.