SA wants bold financial reforms to end Africa's debt crisis ahead of UN financing conference
Deputy Minister of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Alvin Botes, said that debt must be sustainable and international development finance needs to be reimagined so that 'no school, clinic or innovator's dream is sacrificed on the altar of debt or indifference'.
Image: Katlholo Maifadi / DIRCO News
South Africa is calling for the upcoming 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) to be a catalyst for change in how international development finance is structured so that no African nation suffers crippling aid debt.
Deputy Minister of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Alvin Botes, said that debt must be sustainable and international development finance needs to be reimagined so that 'no school, clinic or innovator's dream is sacrificed on the altar of debt or indifference'.
FfD4, to be held in Seville, Spain between June 30 and July 3, 'must close the financial divide, attack inequality at its root and operationalise the Pact for the Future and the Global Digital Compact,' said Botes. FfD4, to be held under the auspices of the United Nations, seeks to address the urgent need to fully implement Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and support reform of the international financial architecture.
Speaking at an event on illicit financial flows, mobilising domestic resources, and financing for development, hosted at SGN Grant Thornton's offices towards the end of last week, Botes also said that the global financing landscape is in disrepair.
'The G20 Common Framework has stalled, multilateral development banks deliver net negative flows, and unsustainable debt crowds out SDG spending,' the Deputy Minister said.
South Africa, currently Presiding over the G20 until it hands the baton to the United States at the end of November, is ready to champion developing nations when it comes to their economic plight and unsustainable debt, said Botes. He noted that 43 of the world's 47 emerging nations are in Africa.
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'The age of incrementalism has ended; the era of decisive, equitable and bold action begins now. South Africa is ready to lead, to support and to walk alongside every partner committed to justice, equity and shared progress,' Botes said.
South Africa aims to use its Presidency to have the G20's Common Framework overhauled some five years after its creation during the COVID-19 pandemic as a mechanism to help relieve the economic impact caused by the plague.
'South Africa chairs this G20 year resolved to turn analysis into action and global consensus into ground-level change,' said Botes.
Current international development financial frameworks are throttling emerging countries, which end up with unsustainable debt that 'crowds out' SDG spending, said Botes. He added that emerging markets need to 'participate equally in global decisions'.
Botes also called for multilateral development banks to honour country ownership, credit rating agencies to reflect each country's fundamentals in their assessments and not prejudice them, and for developed economies to finally meet their Overseas Development Assistance and climate-finance commitments.
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