The DTI was first announced by the G20 in October 2020 as a mechanism to improve transparency in low-income countries.

It is designed around the Institute of International Finance (IIF) Voluntary Principles on Debt Transparency. The IIF and its membership have been active in the design of the initiative, whereas CSOs and borrowing countries have not been invited.

The signatories to the letter – including Eurodad - are asking the OECD to fix the deficiencies in the initiative. In order to have an instrument that delivers true transparency, the following is necessary:

• Participation of governments from the global south.
• Participation of stakeholders from the global south.
• Inclusion of all debt instruments and all countries.

The letter states: “Efforts that fail to address the issues we have raised in this letter will neither be in a position to act as a mechanism for increasing debt transparency in the global south – nor will they be accountable to either borrowers or lenders.”

It also includes a proposal supported by a global network of CSOs to establish a publicly accessible registry of loan and debt data that can be used as an input in the process of design and implementation of the OECD DTI.

To read the full letter click here.

Additional signatures:

63. Financial Transparency Coalition 

64. Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria

65. Centre for Leadership & Environmental Development (CLED), Nigeria

66. Observatori del Deute en la Globalitzacio, Spain

67. Centro de Derechos Económicos y Sociales - CDES, Ecuador

Media contact: Julia Ravenscroft, Communications Manager, Eurodad: +32 486356814/ [email protected]