Public Debt And Sustainable Development In The Post-pandemic Era: A Global South View

The global economy has experienced unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic. Central to these enduring repercussions is the escalation ofpublic debt, casting a shadow over the fiscal space of governments and their ability to make progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and address the growing impacts of climate change. It is thus urgent to reconsider debt restructuring strategies, the conditionalities associated with International Financial Institutions’ loans, and emerging fiscal frameworks for the developing world. In this policy brief, we develop four concrete proposals involving international financial institutions, which can function as avenues to tackle the challenges mentioned above: (a) alternative ways to define “sustainability” in international financial institutions’ debt analysis; (b) to promote debt-for-climate swaps; (c) support the implementation of green tax reforms; and (d) support government implementing non-regressive tax reforms.