Affordable and sustainable external debt financing is a core requirement to achieve structural transformation in developing countries, and to meet the 2030 Agenda.
This webinar will be to examine the different policy options to reform the international financial and debt architecture, at both market-based and multilateral levels, to promote comprehensive, effective and equitable sovereign debt restructurings and relief, as well as sound sovereign debt markets that can pro-actively support sustainable and inclusive development.
Guiding questions for panelists:
- What are the advantages and shortcomings of existing arrangements for debt financing, debt relief and for sovereign debt restructuring? This would include:
- Contractual market-based improvements (such as enhanced collective action clauses in sovereign bond contracts)
- Existing multilateral solutions, particularly the G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) and its Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI.
- Given your professional and/or academic experience, what are your priorities for a reform of the international financial and debt architecture?
- Which are the different ways of mobilizing support for the establishment of a global, consensus-based and inclusive multilateral framework for debt treatment and restructuring?
- How can UNCTAD, international financial institutions and other United Nations system entities promote relevant reform proposals in this regard?
Panelists:
-
Mr. Martín Guzman, Minister of Economy, Argentine Republic.
-
Mr. Avinash Persaud, Emeritus Professor of Gresham College and Chair of the CARICOM Commission on the Economy, Barbados.
-
Ms. Stephany Griffith-Jones, Financial Markets Program Director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University and Emeritus Professorial Fellow, Institute for Development Studies, Sussex University, United Kingdom.
-
Ms. Yuefen Li, Special Advisor on Economics and Development Finance of the South Centre and Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights to the UN Human Rights Council.
Chair:
-
Mr. Richard Kozul-Wright, Director, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, UNCTAD.
Organisational and logistical Information:
Panellists are asked to prepare an initial presentation of 10-12 mins around the above guiding questions and with an emphasis of their chosing on any specific issues raised by these questions, not least in the context of their specific professional backgrounds and experience. Presentations will be followed by around an hour of questions and answers.
There is some issue in accessing document path, Please contact to Site Admin
There is some issue in accessing document path, Please contact to Site Admin
Martin Guzman is the current Minister of Economy of the Republic of Argentina.
He was a researcher at the Columbia University School of Business and Director of the Public Debt Restructuring Program of the Policy Dialogue Initiative of the same School. Together with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, he has directed the academic training program of the Columbia University Initiative for Policy Dialogue.
He is Full Professor at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the National University of La Plata and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. Professor Guzman is also editor in chief of the Journal of Globalization and Development and has published numerous academic articles in specialized journals and books.
He graduated as a Doctor of Economics (PhD. In Economics) from Brown University, United States.
Mr. Avinash Persaud is Emeritus Professor of Gresham College and Chair of the CARICOM Commission on the Economy, Barbados.
His career spans finance, public policy and academia. He is currently Chairman of the CARICOM Commission on the Economy and was Chairman of the regulatory sub-committee of the UN Commission on Financial Reform as well as Chairman of the Warwick Commission on International Financial Reform. He was a Member of the UK Treasury's Audit and Risk Committee and the Pew Task Force to the US Senate Banking Committee. He was Distinguished Advisor, Financial Sector Law Reform Commission of India and has been a Visiting Scholar at the IMF.
Professor Persaud is a former Governor, London School of Economics, and 2010 President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected Trustee of the Global Association of Risk Professionals and of the Royal Economics Society.
Professor Persaud has published widely in academic and professional journals and has won a number of prizes and awards in finance.
Stephany Griffiths-Jones is an economist specialising in international finance and development, with emphasis on reform of the international financial system, specifically in relation to financial regulation, global governance and international capital flows.
She is currently Financial Markets Programme Director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University in New York, and Emeritus Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. She has held the position of Deputy Director of International Finance at the Commonwealth Secretariat and has worked at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and in the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Professor Griffiths-Jones has published over 20 books and authored many scholarly and journalistic articles. She holds a PhD degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Yuefen Li is currently Special Advisor on Economics and Development Finance at the South Centre, Geneva, and Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights to the UN Human Rights Council.
She worked at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 1990 to 2014 where she last was Head of the Debt and Development Finance Branch in the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies. She was also guest professor at Tsinghua University and two other universities in China. She has published books, papers and articles in professional journals and newspapers, and contributed extensively to UNCTAD and South Centre publications and documents.
She received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Foreign Studies of China and Master's degree from the American Graduate School of International Management in the United States.
Richard Kozul-Wright is the director of UNCTAD’s globalization and development strategies division.
He has worked at the UN in both New York and Geneva and published widely on economic issues, including in the Economic Journal, the Cambridge Journal of Economics, the Journal of Development Studies, and the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.
He has co-written books such as The Resistible Rise of Market Fundamentalism with Paul Rayment and co-edited volumes of Transnational Corporations and the Global Economy, Economic Insecurity and Development, Securing Peace, Climate Protection and Development and Industrial Policy.
He also co-edited Transforming Economies: Making Industrial Policy Work for Growth, Jobs and Development with the International Labour Organization.
He holds a PhD degree in economics from the University of Cambridge in the UK.
