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.

Public services play a critical role in advancing human rights and fighting inequality. However, growing levels of external public debt, especially in the global south, threaten the very services on which citizens depend in order to have even a basic standard of living.

Read the report in English, French and Spanish

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.

This seminar took place in the context of an emerging wave of debt crises across the globe, and an especially acute situation in Argentina, which had already partly defaulted on sovereign debts and announced that action on debt needs to be taken.

Eurodad, along with CSOs from across the world, welcome the draft UN General Assembly Resolution on "External Debt Sustainability and Development."

Ahora existe un amplio consenso en las comunidades financieras y de desarrollo internacionales de que está creciendo una nueva ola de crisis de deuda

There is now widespread consensus within the international finance and development communities that a new wave of debt crises is unfurling. 

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.

As a result of protracted conflict and devastating recurring droughts, Somalia is one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s most troubled and underdeveloped countries.

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…