Poor Countries are Calling For a Debt Revolution

Tired of mounting debt and multiple crises, leaders of the world's poorest countries have called for a rewrite of the rules governing the granting of billions of dollars.

According to OECD data, in 2021 Western countries gave out more than 185 billion dollars in the form of grants and cheap loans. Official development assistance is one of the pillars of the international financial system.

But the 46 least developed countries, which are holding their own UN-hosted summit in Doha this week, are feeling the pinch.

Five decades after the creation of the least developed countries club by the United Nations to organize trade privileges and easier access to other financial means, presidents and prime ministers have said that their problems have piled up.

Climate change, the effects of Covid-19, rising food and fuel prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and mounting debts weigh on poor countries, who blame the system.

"Our partners tend to place all the blame for failures on the recipient partner and avoid examining their own aid programs, which may certainly have contributed to the failures," said East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta.

Debt blame game

Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan has said it is time for international financial institutions to move beyond per capita gross domestic product as the only measure of development.

"One size does not fit all," he said, calling for a system that recognizes that different countries have different problems.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres widened the scope of the attack, condemning the global financial system "created by the rich countries, primarily for their benefit". Without any cash reserves, poor...