- June 14, 2021
- Posted by: admin
- Categories: Current News, debt management
The recent increase in public debt vulnerabilities in low-income countries, including those in the MEFMI region, has heightened the need for more comprehensive and transparent accounting of public sector debt. Public debt transparency is key in supporting the principles of sustainable borrowing and lending practices. For instance, it allows governments to accurately track the evolution of their debt situation, and to effectively monitor and manage debt-related risks and vulnerabilities. Transparency also allows lenders to accurately assess a government’s debt position, borrowing capacity, and creditworthiness before extending new and/or additional credit. This can help lenders and borrowers to avoid agreements that could cause future financial difficulties. However, faced with increasingly diversified financing options and complex debt creating financing instruments, many governments have yet to reach the minimum standards for achieving debt transparency. This is exacerbated by, among others, high staff turnover that continues to be a common and recurrent problem in low-income countries’ debt offices.
It is against this background that MEFMI, the IMF and World Bank jointly offered a virtual course on Fundamentals of Public Debt Reporting and Monitoring from 3 to 14 May 2021. A total of 30 officials from ten (10) MEFMI member countries, namely Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe participated and successfully completed the course.
The course strengthened participants’ knowledge on the basics of debt reporting and monitoring, and raised awareness on the importance of debt transparency. This is evidenced by the quality of debt bulletins prepared and presented by the participants at the end of the course. Participants also learnt from experiences and good practices of peer countries. The sharing of experiences substantially contributed to several insightful discussion points that will prove useful in defining reforms as countries contemplate further initiatives to deepen debt transparency.
The feedback from participants is testimony of how useful and timely the course was. MEFMI will continue to support member countries’ efforts to promote transparency and accountability in the management of public debt.
The course was facilitated by five (5) resource persons, namely Mr. James Knight and Ms. Shirin Nikaeim (IMF Staff), Dr. Sanga Sangarabalan (IMF Consultant), Mr. Lars Jessen (World Bank) and Mr. Tiviniton Makuve (MEFMI Staff).