African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD)

The Harare Declaration, issued during the inaugural African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD) in August 2021, calls for a fundamental reform of the global debt architecture to protect African citizens from unsustainable borrowing and the socio-economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

• The Covid-19 pandemic is projected to push approximately 39 million Africans into extreme poverty in 2021 and risk saddling the youth generation with debt that restricts the population's role as an engine for structural transformation.
• The landscape of public debt in developing countries has become more complex and risky, characterized by an increasing share of commercial bonds traded on international capital markets.
• Current debt sustainability frameworks used by the IMF and private credit rating agencies are criticized for focusing solely on a country's ability to repay creditors without considering the social and environmental tradeoffs required to meet those obligations.
• The document identifies a failure in the global debt architecture to address systemic issues, including a lack of transparency, governance, and accountability in debt contraction, as well as the insufficient participation of all creditors, including International Financial Institutions and private creditors.
• The declaration calls for the establishment of an African Accountability Mechanism to improve the governance of Africa's debt and urges governments to consider debt cancellation or collective default to overcome the distressed nature of sovereign debt.
• To reduce dependence on the current neoliberal consensus, the declaration advocates for the creation of new regional institutions, specifically an African Monetary Fund, an African Development Bank, and an African Investment Bank.

APA

African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (n.d.). African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD). https://afrodad.org/sites/default/files/documents/Afrodad%20Harare%20Declaration%20English.pdf

Chicago

African Forum and Network on Debt and Development. African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD). n.d. https://afrodad.org/sites/default/files/documents/Afrodad%20Harare%20Declaration%20English.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=African Forum and Network on Debt and Development |title=African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD) |url=https://afrodad.org/sites/default/files/documents/Afrodad%20Harare%20Declaration%20English.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{africanforumandnetworkondebtanddevelopmentndafrican, author = {{African Forum and Network on Debt and Development}}, title = {{African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD)}}, publisher = {African Forum and Network on Debt and Development}, url = {https://afrodad.org/sites/default/files/documents/Afrodad%20Harare%20Declaration%20English.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }