Developing nations launch new Borrowers Platform

Although this initiative is based on the “Seville Commitment”adopted last year at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, it has been a long time in the making. To paraphrase the great French writer Victor Hugo, there is nothing stronger than an idea whose time has come.

For decades, developing countries have had to navigate an increasingly complex international financial system. Against a backdrop of growing systemic and geopolitical risks, uncertainty has become the new normal, leading more policymakers in the Global South to call for greater cooperation and coordination.

The Seville Commitment cemented this idea: United Nations Member States agreed to “establish a platform for borrowing countries, supported by existing institutions and the United Nations entity serving as its secretariat”.

The aim is to create a platform where these countries can discuss technical issues, share information on debt solutions, access technical assistance and capacity-building in debt management, coordinate their approaches and influence the global debt architecture.

Debt spiral

The borrowers’ platform has emerged just in time. In 2024. 61 developing countries spent at least 10% of government revenues on debt service, and 3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on health care or education. In other words, the high cost of servicing the debt these countries have accumulated to finance their development now jeopardizes this agenda.

The interdependent and overlapping global crises, combined with the most significant and prolonged period of monetary tightening in more than two decades, have widened the gap between developing countries’ interest payments and their government revenues.

This leaves policymakers with very limited fiscal space for public investment, including for achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and building resilience to climate change.

Compounding these countries’ dilemma, the nature of sovereign debt has changed significantly in recent years, reflecting shifts in the composition of creditors and the use of more sophisticated instruments and contractual innovations.

Negotiating such a complex system requires informed and competent policymakers backed by skilled teams in finance ministries and debt management agencies-a task that is a challenge even for advanced economies.

Meanwhile, existing global debt frameworks have not kept pace with these changes and remain inadequate to meet the needs of countries with debt-servicing difficulties, many of which are in the Global South.

As a result, these economies are left to cope with acute financial problems on their own, without the institutions (both formal and informal) that have long allowed creditors to harmonize their actions.

Strength in unity

The Borrowers’ Platform seeks to change this situation. It recognizes that indebted countries can learn much from each other’s experiences. Just as importantly, it can help these countries build capacity to identify and address debt-related problems by providing coordinated technical assistance on issues ranging from debt management to interactions with credit rating agencies and other financial market participants.

In addition, there is strength in unity when it comes to advancing relevant and necessary reforms to the global debt management system.

Developing countries were quick to capitalize on the agreement reached in Seville. A working group consisting of representatives from Egypt (chair), Zambia, Pakistan (vice-chair), Nepal, Colombia, Honduras, Maldives, and Zambia was established to move the process forward.

With the support of experts from the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the group developed and agreed on a preliminary concept outlining the platform’s objectives, membership criteria and governance structure for potential members to review and adapt during the interim phase (April-October 2026).

Membership is open to developing countries that are UN member states, bilateral borrowers and are not permanent or full members of a lenders’ association. Of the more than 100 countries that meet these criteria and have been invited to join, more than 30 have already done so.

As interim chair of the Borrowers’ Platform, I am committed to ensuring that the group achieves tangible results and becomes an effective mechanism for all participating countries.

Members have already started working together on a voluntary and non-binding basis to achieve common goals such as facilitating peer-to-peer learning, building a knowledge repository and improving the quality and integrity of debt-related data.

In this way, borrowing countries are signaling to markets a willingness and ability to improve debt management practices and development finance outcomes.

While the launch of the Borrowers’ Platform is a welcome milestone, it is only the beginning. Its success will require sustained engagement by member countries, continued support from international partners, and a shared commitment to practical, results-oriented cooperation.