From 16 to 18 December 2024, representatives of Our Century PF participated in the High-Level Regional Consultations on Financing for Development in the Asia-Pacific Region in preparation for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development at the UN Conference Center, Bangkok, Thailand.
Below is a collective message from the CSO network for session 3
APRCEM Collective Statement
Session 3: Addressing public debt sustainability and their implications for development finance
Collective statement submitted by Ume Laila Azhar, Women’s Constituency, APRCEM
In the Asia-Pacific region, debt crises are spiraling out of control, along with multiple, interconnected and recurring crises. Asia-Pacific external debt, including commercial, bilateral and multilateral debt, is projected to reach approximately US$21.1 trillion by 2024, with 19 countries at high risk of debt distress in 2023 amid an unprecedented rise in debt-to-GDP ratios to nearly 49%, leaving little fiscal space for development priorities.
We express our alarm at the egregious, widespread human rights violations caused and perpetuated by the automatic allocation of large shares of national budgets to debt servicing; This is compounded by coercive, austerity measures that prioritize debt servicing over investment in critical public sectors and climate action, with social safety nets unaffordable, weak or non-existent.
The unsustainable debt trap not only undermines prospects for genuine growth and development, but also shifts the burden of repaying the world’s richest creditors onto the poorest, most vulnerable, ordinary low-wage workers in the Global South.
We welcome the previous remarks of Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives of Pakistan, and other country delegates, who highlighted the heavy debt burden of Global South countries in the Asia-Pacific region and the need to achieve debt sustainability without exacerbating existing burdens. In fact, there is widespread recognition of the urgency of resolving debt crises, especially for countries in severe debt crisis.
We put forward the following requirements:
- Immediate cancellation of all unsustainable, offensive and illegal debts and reparations from the Global North to the Global South for the centuries of plunder and devastation caused by the colonial and ongoing neo-colonial dynamics of the global international financial architecture;
- Ending IFI-imposed structural conditions and forced austerity measures; instead, redirect public finances to provide well-resourced universal social protection that is mandatory and enforceable by law;
- A binding and transparent multilateral debt resolution mechanism under the auspices of the UN that ensures the participation and cooperation of all bilateral, multilateral and private creditors and is consistent with the principles of responsible sovereign lending and borrowing;
- A human rights approach to debt sustainability frameworks and analyzes (DSAs), ensuring assessments are responsive to climate, sustainable development and gender needs, including ex post and ex ante gender, human rights, labor and environmental assessments and audits;
- A process for providing debt-free climate finance separate from official development assistance obligations, and an additional mechanism for losses and damages as structural and financial reparations in recognition of responsibility for the increasing frequency and severity of extreme climate events;
- Debt relief tools in any form to ensure transparency and accountability.
Change the system, shift power! Development equity now!
For the full statement and set of recommendations from civil society organizations, please see the copy of the statement that will be provided to the Secretariat. Thank you very much.
Also at the end of the event, representatives of the CSO network organized a silent picket at the exit of the conference hall where regional consultations were held.
