Online Workshop on Debt Restructuring: Development or Devastation? Building alliances for Debt Justice Advocacy | Invitation by Collective of Debt Justice Researchers in Sri Lanka | Wednesday, 10 April 2024 | 2 pm GMT

Facing multiple crisis from the fallout of the COVID19 pandemic to the Russian invasion into Ukraine, the global interest rate hikes and the climate emergency, sovereign debt vulnerabilities have increased dramatically in many countries around the world. Several countries had or have to negotiate debt relief with their creditors. Some never were in default or had a debt restructuring before, others already previously negotiated debt restructurings and received debt relief, such as in the multilateral HIPC initiative end of the 1990ies. With or without a debt restructuring history – all post-COVID debt restructurings today share similar challenges in their way out of the debt crisis, all are caught in a global financial architecture that is characterized by unequal power relations and favoring the profits of creditors over the long-term social and economic recovery of debtor nations. Challenges in debt restructurings are related to slow negotiation processes, conflicting creditor interests and limited debt relief while costs of the crisis and its resolution are socialized. While just debt relief can be the only way to recovery in a debt crisis, debt restructurings in the current creditor-dominated debt architecture can also mean cementing social devastation when, for example, through a mandatory IMF program, financing gaps are filled with austerity and reforms that also have long-term negative social and political implications.

The workshop aims to bring together civil society organisations, trade unions, social movements and researchers from countries currently under debt restructuring and accompanying IMF programs to foster each other’s understanding on similarities and differences in the countries’ debt restructuring processes, implementation of the IMF reform program and on a civil society agenda for the way out of the debt crisis.

Agenda

2 pm GMT – Introduction to the workshop, Round of introduction of participants

2:15 pm GMT – Country situation and experiences (moderated discussion)

• Short overview on each country and the state of play in debt restructuring
• Challenges in the respective country-related debt restructuring process
• Broader social, economic and political challenges as a consequence of the current debt crisis
• Different cases and their relationship to the global debt restructuring debate
• Debt justice agenda in each country over the next 12 months

3:45 pm GMT – Wrap-up

• What are areas of joint synergies?
• Next steps

Where?
Online, Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88600931075

Who?
Civil society organisations, trade unions, social movements and researchers from countries currently under debt restructuring and accompanying IMF programs and allies.