Ministerial fireside chat 1 : Lowering borrowing costs and advancing development-oriented debt solutions

In response to successive shocks, multilateral lenders have made efforts to increase the provision of concessional resources while international financial institutions have advanced important institutional reforms. Yet, many developing countries continue to face high debt service burdens and borrowing costs, which severely constrain their fiscal space for critical investments to support three dimensions of Sustainable Development. Sovereign debt restructurings, when needed, are often slow and unpredictable.

This session will discuss the steps needed to lower borrowing costs for developing countries and bring about a development-oriented sovereign debt architecture.

Framing questions:

• How can international and national efforts strengthen efforts to support preventative debt measures, such as state contingent debt instruments, including climate resilient debt clauses?
• What mechanisms can lower borrowing costs for developing countries and enhance fiscal space for sustainable development investments?
• What steps are needed to ensure sovereign debt restructurings broadly support development priorities and are efficient, fair, predictable, coordinated, timely and orderly?

Chair: ECOSOC President/Vice-President

Moderator: Mr. Claver Gatete, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa

• H.E. Mr. Gareth do Espírito Santo Guadalupe, Minister of Finance, São Tomé and Príncipe
• H.E. Ms. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, Egypt
• H.E. Mr. William Roos, Assistant Secretary for Multilateral, Development and Trade Affairs, Treasury, France

Civil society response from the floor (2 minutes)

Ministerial interactive discussion