IMF

The African Sovereign Debt Justice Network, (AfSDJN), is a coalition of citizens, scholars, civil society actors and church groups committed to exposing the adverse impact of unsustainable levels of African sovereign debt on the lives of ordinary citizens.

We reiterate our position that African countries did not take part in designing the current international financial architecture, embedded in their historical subjugation. Resultantly, as highlighted by the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, it is “skewed significantly against developing and emerging economies” in favor of rich countries. A reform of the governance structure of the Bretton Woods institutions is required as a significant step towards recognizing African countries and citizens as rule makers in the re-design of the international financial and debt architecture.

The 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly was convened on September 13, 2022 to September 26, 2022. Even as the globe faces a polycrisis driven by the global slowdown, the war in Ukraine, shortages of energy, fertilizer and food, rising interest rates and debt levels, and climate change, the Global South’s leaders joined leaders from around the world to discuss these pressing development issues and work with the relevant global partners to find solutions to these challenges.

Paper V of the African Sovereign Debt Justice Network Paper Series

To mitigate the risk of speculation, I have proposed  that the international community should create a Debts of Vulnerable Economies Fund (a “DOVE” fund) to help African countries deal with their private sector debt. The fund could be created by an African institution such as the African Development Bank or the African Union. The fund should be financed by governments, foundations, financial institutions, companies and individuals. In order to demonstrate its independence from both debtor countries and creditor institutions it should be managed by an independent board representing all stakeholders.

the responsibility to build a nation rests upon its policy-makers, lawyers and accountants. It is a collective one. The next step is to bring all stakeholders to the round-table and contribute to the global tax system from a protectionist standpoint. The lure of subscribing to the global fiscal commons must be tempered with the need to protect the tax bases and revenue of the fiscal sovereign. The time to act is now and right.

Over the last decade, and especially in the mining sector, African state actors have begun to denounce unequal mining contracts, and are increasingly reviewing mining contracts accordingly. While African host states are seemingly taking it upon themselves to remedy real and perceived imbalances vis-à-vis investors in their mining contracts, a key question remains what structural reasons have led to such imbalances in the first place, and whose responsibility it is to address these structural issues: host states, investors, home states, international financial institutions, or all the above? This brief discussion contextualizes how responsibilities to redress unequal mining contracts may be shared.