The UN Climate Conference (COP27) is currently taking place in Egypt. Tackling climate change requires a global effort; so it is crucial that the quality and quantity of international climate finance for countries in the global south is strengthened. Two key markers of success at COP27 are whether countries agree to a Loss and Damage Finance Facility, and whether the post-2025 climate finance goal will cover loss and damage.

The worsening debt crisis in developing countries calls for immediate debt cancellation and structural reforms, but the G20 is not willing to deliver. A truly multilateral and systemic response, that includes borrowing countries in the decision-making, is urgently needed.

On Thursday, the IMF published a blog on the problems facing the implementation of the G20 Common Framework (CF). This signals a victory for civil society campaigners – but is ultimately too little too late.

Eurodad experts analyse how COP26 failed to deliver on climate finance, loss and damage and adaptation.

Without a human rights-based alternative to austerity, many countries will find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of self-defeating fiscal adjustments, instability and unsustainable debts.

Business as usual prevailed over the need for genuine reform during the Annual Meetings of the Bretton Woods Institutions earlier this month. This is the third of a three-blog series dealing with the Doing Business Report scandal, allocation of rich countries unused Special Drawing Rights and the debt crisis.

Business as usual prevailed over the need for genuine reform during the Annual Meetings of the Bretton Woods Institutions earlier this month. This is the second of a three-blog series dealing with the Doing Business Report scandal, allocation of rich countries unused Special Drawing Rights and the debt crisis.

Business as usual prevailed over the need for genuine reform during the Annual Meetings of the Bretton Woods Institutions earlier this month. This is the first of a three-blog series dealing with the Doing Business Report scandal, allocation of rich countries unused Special Drawing Rights and the debt crisis.

The 76th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 76) 2021 concluded on September 27.

The UNGA includes the representatives of all 193 Member States and is in session every year between September and December. 

The remaining months of 2021 are crucial for the future of our humanity. The multiple and interrelated crises that we face call for an even greater level of unprecedented and truly multilateral action.

During the past year, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, in partnership with the US asset management firm PIMCO, has advocated for the establishment of a Liquidity and Sustainability Facility (LSF). The LSF has been presented as a mechanism to support countries in Africa in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. But which countries and investors really stand to benefit? 

We are at a crucial juncture. Global discussions on how to respond to low- and middle-income countries’ increasing debt burdens could lead us to a prolonged debt crisis in the global south, especially in Africa, or to game-changing debt architecture reform. The question is: What path will high-income countries choose?

The Covid-19 crisis threatens to erode two-decades' of progress on poverty reduction in Bangladesh. This difficult situation highlights the need for a more ambitious response to the crisis.

In this first part of our blog series on Covid-19 from a feminist perspective, we look at how the pandemic is impacting women and girls and deepening gender divides.

Read part two

While Covid-19 has had a limited impact on the health of Grenada's population, the economic impact of the virus has been devastating. 

Nepal has been caught in a blizzard of economic and health challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Like other countries in the global south, it has received insufficient and inadequate support to tackle these challenges. The consequences of the lack of international solidarity are being felt by the most vulnerable people across the country.

Faced with the crisis of the century, the G20 has failed to meet the demands of the moment. As the Saudi Arabian presidency comes to a close, Eurodad policy experts take a critical look at what has been delivered.

Ecuador está atravesando una crisis sanitaria y humanitaria como resultado del Covid-19. En este blog se analiza las implicaciones de la pandemia, la crisis de deuda en Ecuador y la iniciativa DSSI.

Ecuador is experiencing a health and humanitarian crisis as a result of Covid-19. This blog explores the implications of the pandemic, Ecuador's debt crisis and the DSSI initiative. 

Covid-19 has left Kenya in a precarious position. A large debt burden and the impact of the pandemic are eroding all the gains made in the fight against poverty over the last few decades.

This two-part blog series will provide an analysis of the possible structure of the G20 “Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI”. Part I describes the likely structure of the framework. Part II analyses why a Paris Club-based approach to the Common Framework is unlikely to succeed.

This two-part blog series will provide an analysis of the possible structure of the G20 “Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI”. Part I describes the likely structure of the framework. Part II analyses why a Paris Club-based approach to the Common Framework is unlikely to succeed.

The Philippines has been in a vulnerable position since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. This vulnerability can be explained by social, economic, health and financial factors. As a result of these pre-existing conditions, the crisis has been acutely felt by the population of the country. 

The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the living conditions of the population of Zambia. Debt relief with private creditor participation is required now to ensure the country can boost its Covid-19 response and support a sustainable recovery.

The indicators of a severe debt crisis were already present in Pakistan long before the Covid-19 crisis hit. Coordinated efforts by CSOs all round the world are needed to ensure that countries like Pakistan are not left alone dealing with its impact.

This weekend, G20 Finance Ministers passed up the chance to scale up debt relief to developing countries, demonstrating a galling lack of urgency in the face of the debt crisis engulfing a pandemic-stricken globe. Worse still, their approach risks making a bad situation worse.

Piling on more debt on to the shoulders of developing countries will not help them recover from the Covid-19 crisis, write Isabelle Brachet and Maria Jose Romero.

Argentina continues to struggle with recession and a mounting debt crisis. The country has been on selective default for a few months, and is battling to avoid a broader default.

This second part of our two-part blog series provides an assessment of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative announced last week. Part I analyses the impact of the proposal on fiscal responses to Covid-19. Part II places the initiative in the context of the broader economic costs of the crisis for developing countries.

This blog series of two parts will provide an assessment of the G20 debt service suspension initiative announced last week. Part I analyses the impact of the proposal on fiscal responses to Covid-19. Part II places the initiative in the context of the broader economic costs of the crisis for developing countries. 

As the world grapples with responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, this blog explores the key issues for countries in the global south.

On 13 April, the IMF announced an initiative to provide debt relief for a selected group of 25 countries. 

El costo humano y económico de la crisis causada por COVID-19 es un claro recordatorio de la fragilidad de nuestra sociedad globalizada.

The IMF and WB are calling on the G20 to support debt relief for impoverished countries in the face of the Covid-19 outbreak. But the institutions must break with the past to ensure debt relief fulfils its purpose.

This is a guest blog on behalf of the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) by Dr Hassan Sherry, Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Economics, Lebanese American University

This is the fourth part of a blog series covering the impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable countries in the global south. Part 1 analyses the impact of debt burdens on health services. Part 2 discusses how the economic crisis will affect countries in the global south. Part 3 highlights the degree of vulnerability of countries in the global south to the Covid-19 epidemic. Part 4 provides a discussion on policy responses to tackle the risks posed by the epidemic. 

This is the third part of a blog series covering the impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable countries in the global south. Part 1 analyses the impact of debt burdens on health services. Part 2 discusses how the economic crisis will affect countires in the global south. Part 3 highlights the degree of vulnerability of countries in the global south to the Covid-19 epidemic. Part 4 provides a discussion on policy responses to tackle the risks posed by the epidemic.

This is the second part of a blog series covering the impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable countries in the global south. Part 1 analyses the impact of debt burdens on health services. Part 2 discusses how the economic crisis will affect countries in the global south. Part 3 highlights the degree of vulnerability of countries in the global south to the Covid-19 epidemic. Part 4 provides a discussion on policy responses to tackle the risks posed by the epidemic.

This is the first part of a blog series covering the impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable countries in the global south. Part 1 analyses the impact of debt burdens on health services. Part 2 discusses how the economic crisis will affect countires in the global south. Part 3 highlights the degree of vulnerability of countries in the global south to the Covid-19 pandemic. Part 4 provides a discussion on policy responses to tackle the risks posed by the pandemic.

by Iolanda Fresnillo, Eurodad and Verónica Serafini, LATINDADD

This blog outlines the serious barriers women are facing due to the unfurling debt crisis in the global south. As debt payments increase, resources are diverted from public services investments and towards the outsourcing and privatisation of these services. This poses a threat to women’s rights and equality. CSOs across the world can help tackle this injustice, but, as this blog states, a greater gender focus for our actions is essential.

2020 starts the ten-year countdown for the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also a critical period for a just response to climate change, ensuring that those who are the least responsible do not pay the greatest price.

On January 12 2010 an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale ripped through Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and other parts of Haiti. More than 1.5 million people, representing 15 per cent of the country's population, were directly affected by the earthquake. According to the Haitian government, 316,000 people lost their lives. An estimated US$ 7.8 billion dollars of damage was caused - equivalent to more than 120 per cent of the GDP of 2009. Everyone in Haiti has a story that begins or ends on 12 January and many wounds remain open. Everyone lost someone. Everyone remembers where they were that day.

The new European Commission is sending a clear signal by tabling a “Green New Deal” within a month of its inception. But to be a true statement of intent rather than a mere public relations manoeuvre, it must speak to the urgency for action.  

The Bretton Woods Institutions were built on the ruins of an old world-order, at the end of World War II, and the dawn of a new world order, marked by the birth of many new nation-states and the onset of the cold-war. 

The debate about a Green New Deal has recently been reinvigorated in both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, the Green New Deal is part of the priorities of the European Commission’s President-elect Ursula von der Leyen. And at the UN in New York last month, sustainable development was featured in a series of global Summits, including the Climate Action Summit. In response, UNCTAD used the momentum to  launch the 2019 edition of the Trade and Development Report (TDR) which analyses the new deal from a financing perspective, identifies constraints and outlines innovative financing options. 

Following the European elections in May, former German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen has assumed the role of President-elect of the European Commission. In July, von der Leyen, the first woman to take this post, released a concept paper titled “A Union that strives for more” and on Tuesday this week she unveiled the names of the new Commissioners.  And with these releases, the policy agenda of the next European Commission, mandated to govern until 2024, is slowly taking shape. In response, we ask what are the implications for development finance?   

As G20 leaders meet this weekend to debate the state of the global financial and economic system, there is no shortage of problems to discuss. 

The United Nations convened in New York last week for the Financing for Development Forum. While the outcome document has been negotiated in advance, the Forum itself offered lots of opportunities to discuss what change we need to finance the sustainable development goals. 

In a valuable step forward to support human rights compliant economic policy-making, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) called on 21 March for governments and intergovernmental organisations to make use of new UN guidance when developing economic reforms.

Over the course of the week leading up to International Women's Day 2019 we released a series of graphics featuring the staff of Eurodad and their work areas, with quotes reflecting how Eurodad's work aims to promote gender equality. 

The European Commission has released a new Staff Working Document on Policy Coherence for Development (PCD). The Commission’s report covers the first three years of the EU’s attempts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals, an endeavour for which PCD is crucial. The document however unveils that the EU’s PCD framework, as complex as it might already be, continues to have severe omissions – in particular the complete neglect of the EU’s fiscal and monetary policies on sustainable development in and outside the EU. Moreover, while the Communication maps EU policies on taxation and investment, it sells some of those as positive contributions while it neglects the risks and negative impacts that EU policies in these areas have.

At the start of the New Year, the number of countries at high risk of debt distress is growing at an alarming rate. With so many crises already ongoing, and more expected to emerge over the next 12 months, it’s no surprise that the topic is high on the agenda of international organisations. But perhaps it’s not as high up as it should be in order to head off a looming crisis…

First in a two-part blog series 

When the global financial crisis broke, the world looked to the G20 to find solutions. But as G20 leaders recently gathered in Buenos Aires 10 years on for their 2018 Summit, it was all too clear that ‘too big to fail banks’ have grown even bigger while we’re stuck with a vastly expanded shadow banking industry and a very worrying new wave of debt crises. Even though the G20 consider themselves to be the world’s major body for economic policy coordination, they are sleepwalking into the next crisis.

“There are negotiations being made that are going to answer all of your questions and solve all of your problems. That’s all I can tell you right now.” So goes the line from The Godfather.

Debt problems continue to burden countries on both sides of the Atlantic. Argentina has just agreed the highest ever International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan and risk premiums for Italian bonds have surged. This is the backdrop for a new report by the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat – a forum that brings together 150 parliamentarians from the two regions). The report joins growing demands for better institutions to help prevent and resolve debt crises.

With the country still reeling from the devastation of the Sulawesi tsunami, Indonesia played host to the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WBG), in Bali last week. The sobriety of the moment was reflected in gloomy forecasts from the IMF, which issued stark warnings of debt and trade risks to global growth. Meanwhile, controversy surrounded the World Bank’s new Human Capital Index; the 2019 World Development Report; and the ‘private finance first’ approach at the core of the Bank’s Maximising Finance for Development. CSOs and academics raised their voices to shine a light on the risks that the policies of the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) posed to human rights and sustainable development across the Global South. Eurodad presented new research on the harmful impacts of Public-Private Partnerships and on IMF loan conditionality, and facilitated dialogue on better creditor coordination to solve debt crises.

This article was initially published in Eurodad member SLUG's newsletter

Ten years ago, on 15 September 2008, the US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed. This collapse is largely seen as a key event of the North Atlantic financial crisis, which also had spillover effects on the rest of the world. Around the globe, this decade-long crisis has caused massive unemployment, as well as rising poverty and inequality. It has been used and abused to slash people’s rights – in particular the rights of workers – while the financial sector that caused the crisis has benefited from huge publicly funded bailouts. Ten years after the last crisis began, global debt levels are higher than before, and debt vulnerabilities are increasingly hard to manage. That’s why activists all over the world are standing up to call for fundamental reforms of the financial sector on 15 September 2018.

The G20 Finance Ministers of the world’s largest economies met in Buenos Aires last weekend, but their failure to tackle pressing global problems, including the threat of trade wars and a looming debt crisis, highlighted how ineffective the G20 has become.  Given that the G20 cannot tackle key issues, is promoting ineffective initiatives, and has largely become a rubber stamping body for other actors, the time is ripe to rethink how the global economy is governed, and to promote alternatives.

This article has also been published by Triple Crisis. 

Argentinians are experiencing deja-vu this month as the government announces massive layoffs and a hiring freeze as part of an adjustment package attached to a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Thousands of public servants are being forced yet again to swallow the bitter pill of austerity, which the IMF programme - published last Friday - aims to patch up through increased targeted social assistance.

On 2 July, the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD DAC) will decide whether to change the rules on how debt relief is reported as Official Development Assistance (ODA). There is a serious risk that these changes could create loopholes allowing donors that use debt-based instruments to inflate their aid levels at the expense of the poorest countries.

Eurozone finance ministers convened for a crucial Eurogroup session in Brussels on 21 June and agreed on a last-minute set of new debt reprofiling measures for Greece. The package of maturity extensions, interest deferrals and €15bn in new loans from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) means that the Greek debt stock is likely to rise further in coming years.

In a landmark ruling on 31 May, the Belgian Constitutional Court upheld the country’s anti-vulture funds law, rejecting a legal challenge by a particularly notorious fund. NML Capital, an opaque vulture fund listed in the offshore financial centre of the Cayman Islands, had tried to shelve the Belgian law and intervene in democratic decision-making in Belgium. The ruling means the law remains in force, and agreements by the European Parliament and the United Nations imply that it is on the way to becoming an example for a worldwide solution to the challenges that vulture funds pose to the fair and speedy resolution of debt crises.

To date, there are no international institutions that are in a position to resolve debt crises in a fair, orderly and sustainable manner.

Vulture funds target crisis countries that are already struggling to finance public services and infrastructure. An initiative in Belgium positions the country as a pioneer in efforts to stop vulture funds.