The Human Costs of the Failing Global Debt System

A combination of multiple shocks—including the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine—has left a range of low and middle-income countries struggling under the weight of debt.

It is now clear that the existing global debt architecture is unable to meet the challenge. Several countries—including Zambia—have faced seemingly interminable delays in renegotiating with their creditors, even as they comply with all requirements set by the International Monetary Fund and others. The process set up to help streamline restructuring has instead resulted in confusion, delays, and, ultimately, very real human costs in borrower countries.

At this event hosted by Sciences Po's Chair in Sovereign Debt, Open Society Foundations will launch a new policy brief that highlights the human costs of delaying a debt restructuring and calls all stakeholders to take simple actions that can help accelerate the restructuring process.

This event is part of a series of events organized by Sciences Po in the context of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact taking place in Paris on 22-23 June.

Speakers:

• Mark Malloch-Brown, President, Open Society Foundations
• Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, Director, IMF
• Faides TembaTemba, Executive Director, CSPR, Zambia
• Axel van Trotsenburg, Senior Managing Director, World Bank

The policy brief will be presented by Clément Graf von Luckner, PhD candidate, Sciences Po, and the panel discussion will be moderated by Arancha Gonzalez, Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs/