Systemic Change in Global Finance: A Call to Action for Development Organisations

Last week, the authors of ‘Why Nations Fail‘ won the Nobel Prize for Economics, reigniting debates about democracy and the institutions that lie behind global inequality.

For any organisation intent on systemic change and addressing the core issues behind injustice, engaging with these debates is paramount.

This is why the team at Skating Panda has been finding the work of Dr Hippolyte Fofack particularly captivating.

Dr Fofack’s writing draws attention to the injustice and imbalance of global finance. This includes questioning the bias behind credit rating agencies, the need for hard limits on the proportion of national budgets used for debt servicing, or the unjust allocation of IMF Special Drawing Rights (the IMF’s internal currency).

As such, Global North organisations working in development aid in countries most affected by debt and low income should be asking themselves:

• Is our work addressing the core, systemic reasons for the problems we are seeking to alleviate?

• What role can we play to influence the global financial architecture, from multilateral institutions and private lenders, to central banks and foreign ministries?

Earlier this year, a new report co-authored by Debt Justice‘s Tim Jones and Christian Aid‘s Jennifer Larbie showed that African governments spent 50 times more on debt payments than the UK’s entire aid budget towards the region in 2023, inhibiting spending on priorities such as climate and education.

Addressing questions about financial infrastructure is more urgent than ever.

 

Penned by Jules Moscovici, Skating Panda