For Africa and the Global South: A Call to Action on Debt Justice under South Africa’s G20 Presidency

The document is a formal letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa calling for systemic changes to global debt restructuring and sustainability. The authors argue that current G20 mechanisms, such as the Common Framework, are inadequate and that African nations face an 'African premium' in borrowing costs. They propose several specific interventions, including a UN Framework Convention on sovereign debt, the creation of an African Credit Rating Agency, and the sale of IMF gold reserves to fund debt relief.

• African countries face significantly higher borrowing costs than other regions with similar credit ratings, resulting in an 'African premium' that costs the continent US$74.5 billion annually in excess interest payments.
• In 23 African countries, debt servicing costs exceed spending on essential development enablers such as health, care, and education.
• The G20's Common Framework is viewed as an insufficient first step that has failed to provide a quick path to debt sustainability for highly indebted countries, particularly in Africa.
• The authors call for a UN Framework Convention on sovereign debt to center human rights and equity, prohibit austerity measures that harm essential services, and bind private creditors to human rights standards.
• Proposed reforms to the debt architecture include the establishment of an African Credit Rating Agency, a public Global debt registry, and a 'Borrowers Club' to strengthen the negotiation positions of debtor countries.
• The coalition advocates for the sale of IMF gold reserves to create a debt relief fund and the total cancellation of all unsustainable and illegitimate debts from all creditors.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2025). For Africa and the Global South: A Call to Action on Debt Justice under South Africa’s G20 Presidency. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Letter-to-SA-Presidency-from-Debt-Advocates-14-October.docx.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. For Africa and the Global South: A Call to Action on Debt Justice under South Africa’s G20 Presidency. 2025. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Letter-to-SA-Presidency-from-Debt-Advocates-14-October.docx.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=For Africa and the Global South: A Call to Action on Debt Justice under South Africa’s G20 Presidency |date=14 October 2025 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Letter-to-SA-Presidency-from-Debt-Advocates-14-October.docx.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{instituteforeconomicjustice2025africa, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{For Africa and the Global South: A Call to Action on Debt Justice under South Africa’s G20 Presidency}}, publisher = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Letter-to-SA-Presidency-from-Debt-Advocates-14-October.docx.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }