Towards a Decolonial African Feminist Theory of Debt and the Climate Crisis

The paper argues that the current international financial architecture and neoliberal debt sustainability frameworks ignore gender and ecological dimensions, disproportionately burdening women and nature in Sub-Saharan Africa. It proposes a decolonial African feminist approach based on six principles—epistemic liberation, historicity, specificity, intersectionality, dignity, and justice—to shift the focus from capital-centric growth to social and ecological reproduction.

• The international debt architecture is characterized by a power imbalance where wealthy nations demand external debt payments while ignoring their own 'climate debt' to the majority world, which is estimated to be more than 70 times the total external debt owed by developing countries.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, public debt to GDP increased significantly from 29.5 per cent in 2013 to 61.0 per cent in 2023, with interest payments as a percentage of exports rising from 2.1 per cent in 2013 to 6.2 per cent in 2023.
• Debt servicing costs in Africa are higher than in other developing regions; in 2023, they accounted for 16.7 per cent of government revenues, compared to 14.7 per cent in Latin America and 6.2 per cent in Developing Asia and Oceania.
• Nearly 50 per cent of African countries allocate more of their budget to debt servicing than to essential social services such as education and public health.
• Climate finance is predominantly provided as loans rather than grants, with nearly 80 per cent of finance from multilateral development banks being loans, 60 per cent of which are on non-concessional terms.
• Mainstream Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) frameworks, such as the LIC-DSF, penalize countries for investing in climate adaptation and mitigation because these necessary expenditures increase public debt risks, whereas low-green investment strategies present no such risks to sustainability indicators.
• Women in Sub-Saharan Africa bear a disproportionate burden of the debt and climate crisis because they are primarily responsible for unpaid care and social reproduction; when governments implement austerity to service debt, the resulting cuts in social spending increase women's unpaid labor and reduce their income-earning capacity.
• The document identifies a 'capital versus life nexus' where the requirements of international capital and GDP growth are prioritized over human rights, gender equality, and the preservation of non-human life.
• The author proposes six core principles for a decolonial African feminist theory of development: epistemic liberation, historicity, specificity, intersectionality, dignity, and justice.

APA

African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (n.d.). Towards a Decolonial African Feminist Theory of Debt and the Climate Crisis. https://www.afrodad.org/sites/default/files/advocacy-documents/Towards%20a%20Decolonial%20African%20Feminist%20Theory%20of%20Debt%20and%20the%20Climate%20Crisis%20%284%29.pdf

Chicago

African Forum and Network on Debt and Development. Towards a Decolonial African Feminist Theory of Debt and the Climate Crisis. n.d. https://www.afrodad.org/sites/default/files/advocacy-documents/Towards%20a%20Decolonial%20African%20Feminist%20Theory%20of%20Debt%20and%20the%20Climate%20Crisis%20%284%29.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=African Forum and Network on Debt and Development |title=Towards a Decolonial African Feminist Theory of Debt and the Climate Crisis |url=https://www.afrodad.org/sites/default/files/advocacy-documents/Towards%20a%20Decolonial%20African%20Feminist%20Theory%20of%20Debt%20and%20the%20Climate%20Crisis%20%284%29.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{africanforumandnetworkondebtanddevelopmentndtowards, author = {{African Forum and Network on Debt and Development}}, title = {{Towards a Decolonial African Feminist Theory of Debt and the Climate Crisis}}, institution = {African Forum and Network on Debt and Development}, url = {https://www.afrodad.org/sites/default/files/advocacy-documents/Towards%20a%20Decolonial%20African%20Feminist%20Theory%20of%20Debt%20and%20the%20Climate%20Crisis%20%284%29.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }