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Hanging on a precipice: Public debt management research – Kenya

By Economic Justice

This study published by Tax Justice Network Africa sought to assess the implications of Kenya’s debt management on the advancement of human rights, and the 2030 Agenda. This necessitated the assessment of Kenya’s debt management frameworks, analysis of the implications of public debt on citizens, and assessment of the level of adoption of the 2030 Agenda in different facets of Kenya’s public finance space. The study was guided by research themes developed from the research questions.

The research themes included:
• Debt servicing and expenditure on sectors of the economy (including pro-poor sectors)
• Integration of human rights and the 2030 Agenda in Kenya’s planning and budgeting frameworks
• Kenya’s Debt data transparency
• Kenya’s Debt sustainability
• Kenya’s involvement in the multilateral agenda on debt

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Debt management: Fiscal rules, rights and human development in Peru

By Debt Justice, Economic Justice, Peru

Since the early 1990s, the western world and Latin America have been implementing policies that minimize the role of the State in the economy. These policies are fiscal rules that condition the actions of the State in economic policy through rigid legal frameworks. Certainly, in the long term they have been successful in managing debt since their inception. However, these policies have not been the recipe for a broad guarantee of rights and better human development.

“Debt management in Peru: fiscal rules, rights and human rights”, is a new investigation from the Latin American Network for Economic and Social Justice (LATINDADD), produced by Jameson Alejandro Mencías, which seeks to open the door to a different understanding of macroeconomic, fiscal and debt sustainability, focusing on guaranteeing people’s rights.

Debt, Colombia & Covid-19

By Debt Justice, Economic Justice

Debt, Kenya and the IMF

By Economic Justice, Kenya

A debt pandemic: Dynamics and implications of the debt crisis of 2020

By Debt Justice, Economic Justice

This briefing provides an overview of the dynamics and implications of the 2020 sovereign debt crisis. The prioritisation of creditor rights over the livelihoods of the population of developing countries is a well-known dead-end. Instead, the international community must recognise that the health and wellbeing of millions of people in developing countries is a precondition for debt sustainability.

The apparent financial resilience of developing countries in the aftermath of the Covid-19 shock is misleading. It is the result of a combination of cyclical factors in the form of sectoral adjustments and monetary policy responses triggered by the pandemic. Promoting a prompt return of countries to international financial markets without addressing the debt vulnerabilities exacerbated by the crisis will increase the external financial fragility of developing countries. In turn, it will require a growing transfer of resources from public borrowers to their external creditors over the coming decade. Until now, countries across the world have done so at great human and social costs to their populations. Continuing down this path will sound the death knell for the commitments under the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Beijing Declaration.