More than half of the low-income countries are at high risk of debt distress or already in distress, with elevated interest costs and refinancing needs affecting public fiscal space for social programs and private investments necessary for job creation. Adopting and implementing debt management strategies can help reduce the costs and risks of debt, improve accountability, and support the sustainable development of domestic debt markets – all of which contribute to reducing debt vulnerabilities.
The Program aims to help decision-makers in low-income countries to use debt management strategies to guide them in diversifying funding sources, spreading payments to avoid bunching, and minimizing exposure to foreign currency and other risks. It will cover strategy design, but the focus will be on country lessons of how the debt management strategies can be effectively implemented to achieve these goals.
The program will be delivered in collaboration with partners including the International Monetary Fund, the Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa, the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management, the African Network of Parliamentary Budget Offices, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, and the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions.
Participants in this program will:
Learn how to design and use debt management strategies to reduce debt risks by providing nonpartisan debt analysis to key actors, promoting stakeholder collaboration, and learning from countries that effectively use the debt management strategies to guide debt management decisions.
Develop country-specific plans that align with the Guidelines for Public Debt Management, using successful examples from other nations.
Examine how parliaments and supreme audit institutions assess debt management strategies implementation and increase accountability. Collaborate with peers to develop analytic methods that enhance parliamentary oversight of debt management.
Program Initiation: TBC
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