Multi-stakeholder Consultations on Financing for Development
Dialogues managed by FfDO
Sovereign debt for sustained development
The Financing for Development Office met with key institutional partners – the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and UN Conference on Trade and Development – in August 2004 to begin to plan the set of multi-stakeholder consultations.
- Summary of the first meeting of the core inter-agency team planning the multi-stakeholder consultations on debt (4 August 2004)
The core inter-agency team then prepared an Issues Paper to help guide the discussions in the set of multi-stakeholder consultations on Sovereign Debt for Sustained Development. The paper examines strategic issues in managing sovereign debt, including operationalizing the concept of debt sustainability, organizing to manage sovereign debt, relations between the debtor government and its creditors, and practical ways to contain risk and reduce uncertainty in sovereign debt management. The paper and a commentary on it by civil society organizations cooperating with the Financing for Development process may be accessed through the links below:
- English version (original)
- Versión en español (cortesia: Estrategia Andina, Centroamericana y Amazonica)
- Version française (fournie gracieusement par Debt Relief International)
- Response of NGO Advisory Group to Debt Issues Paper
The Department of Economic and Social Affairs joined with the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) at Columbia University in creating a Task Force on Sovereign Debt to add to the intellectual underpinnings of international debate on policies regarding sovereign debt of developing and transition economies. The Task Force is led by the President of IPD, Joseph Stiglitz, and the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, José Antonio Ocampo. Two other Co-Chairs of the Task Force are Shari Spiegel, Director of IPD, and Barry Herman, Senior Advisor in the Financing for Development Office of DESA. A meeting of the Task Force authors and selected guests was held at Columbia University on 15-16 October 2004.
Chronology of multi-stakeholder consultations
First consultation on "Sovereign debt for sustained development: issues for countries that access financial markets"
(New York, 7- 8 March 2005)
Second Consultation on Sovereign Debt for Sustained Development
The second consultation on Sovereign Debt for Sustained Development took place on 17 March 2005 in Maputo, Mozambique, immediately following the seventh meeting of the Commonwealth HIPC Ministerial Forum (15-16 March 2005) and the eleventh meeting of HIPC Finance Ministers.
- Commonwealth HIPC Ministerial Forum Meeting
- Communiqué of the HIPC Finance Ministers [ E F ]
- Multi-stakeholder Consultation on Sovereign Debt for Sustained Development
Final Consultation on Sovereign Debt for Sustained Development
The final consultation on Sovereign Debt for Sustained Development took place in conjunction with the Fifth UNCTAD Inter-Regional Debt Management Conference which was held on 20-22 June 2005 at the United Nations in Geneva. Summaries of the plenary presentations are being prepared by UNCTAD staff (see http://r0.unctad.org/dmfas/events.htm#Speakers, which also contains available papers presented). The report below pertains to the roundtable discussions held as an integral part of the consultation and conclusions that derive from them.