Side Event at the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings 2024

Side Event at the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings

The G20 Common Framework: A Path to Sustainable Debt Management in Africa?

The poly-crises of the past few years have delivered a devastating blow to many African economies. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered lockdowns and economic disruptions, while the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 heightened energy and food prices, further hampered growth and exacerbated existing vulnerabilities. These recent cascading crises have resulted in a global economic slowdown and a significant rise in public debt across the continent, pushing many countries towards unsustainable debt levels.

In response, African countries have increasingly sought bailouts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and debt restructuring under the G20’s Common Framework for Debt Treatment (CFT). Notably, Zambia became the first African nation to secure a debt restructuring agreement under the CFT in June 2023, while Ghana and Kenya are currently in various stages of negotiations with creditors under the same framework.

These ongoing cases present valuable opportunities for cross-country learning and assessing the effectiveness of the CFT as a tool for achieving sustainable debt management across Africa. By examining specific contexts and experiences, this session seeks to unpack crucial insights into the conditions necessary for the success of these multilateral interventions and the anticipated debt sustainability. Equally important for this session will be to spotlight local political bottlenecks that can hinder the implementation of multilateral interventions: the state of transparency and accountable governance, corruption, and alignment of decisions to long-term planning.

Event Details

Thursday, 18th April, 2024