Roundtable on Advancing Debt Sustainability

Technical Roundtable – Advancing debt sustainability in the pursuit of sustainable development | 12 December 2023 

Developing countries’ debt service burdens and debt sustainability have become a central concern in global discussions on sustainable development and climate action, but the international community has yet to find consensus on a commensurate response to address these challenges and avoid derailing of the SDGs. In response, and building on proposals by the UN Secretary-General and other relevant proposals currently under discussion, the United Nations will convene technical and multistakeholder dialogues with a view to build consensus on technically sound, ambitious but politically feasible proposals to (i) address debt overhangs that inhibit countries’ investment in sustainable development, and (ii) to enhance the sovereign debt resolution architecture.

These dialogues will directly feed into and support substantive preparations for the fourth international conference on financing for development, to be held in Spain in 2025, as well as the Summit of the Future in 2024. Both conferences will provide major opportunities for reaching consensus at the highest political level on a financial and debt architecture supportive of the SDGs and climate action. To kick of these dialogues, a first technical roundtable was organized by the United Nations Department of Econmic and Social Affairs and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Office in New York.