DFI wrote three reports on debt and education for the UNESCO SDG4 Steering Committee in 2025, one on Breaking the Debt Trap: Restoring Fiscal Space to Save Education, a second on Turning debt into education investment: the catalytic potential of debt-for-education swaps? and a third on Turning debt into education investment: a Technical guide for effective debt-for-education swaps.  The papers were launched at the recent UNESCO Transforming Education Summit +4 in Paris. The first paper emphasises the degree to which debt service is crowding out education more than any other sector of government spending, and what can be done about it. The second analyses whether debt for education swaps have the potential to mobilise far more resources for education investment, and concludes that the scope for such swaps is increasingly limited, but they can catalyse more funding if they are very carefully designed. The third sets out a comprehensive set of guidelines for countries to work out whether debt swaps are feasible or desirable, and for designing debt-for-education swaps which can free maximum fiscal space, catalyse additional investment, and produce the strongest results for education. You can find all three papers at UNESCO’s debt and education hub here.

DFI and its partners (act-Church of Sweden, FELM, Norwegian Church Aid, Oxfam and Save the Children), together with AFRODAD, held the first online bilingual webinar for African partner organisations in the phase 2 Commitment to Reducing Inequality project. Its aim was to strengthen their capacity to advocate on debt and its links to public services and inequality. Across Africa, rising debt service is placing extreme pressure on government budgets, cutting investment in the education, health and social protection spending which is essential to reduce inequality. Extreme debt burdens are also exacerbating inequality, because creditors are generally wealthy, while the citizens of poorer countries who pay the costs in spending cuts are the poorest. The webinar introduced participants to the Debt Watch database and showed them how to use it and CRI spending numbers to analyse debt issues. They identified key messages for advocacy in their own countries, sub-regions and across the continent. AFRODAD led a session on what global, regional and national changes in debt policy and institutions need to be advocated to resolve the current debt crisis and prevent a recurrence of future crisis. The next webinar will be on 5 August and will focus on how to advocate for inequality reduction in countries with difficult political situations and limited civil society space.

Martin participated in a meeting at ODI on how to build narratives to build public support for progressive change and renewed commitment to solidarity at home, and global cooperation abroad. He emphasised that in addition to longstanding narratives about global shared problems and mutual interests (eg climate crisis, inequality), narratives should be about solidarity and should treat stakeholders from the global South with respect as equal partners asserting their rights rather than passive recipients of our charity or contributors to the profits of the private sector and growth in our GDP.  They should also emphasise the concrete problems shared by North and South – such as very high bond market interest rates, poor and expensive provision of education, health, transport and water services by the private sector – and the potential for solutions to these problems to reduce the costs of living for all the world’s citizens.

In a podcast interview with the head of Debt Justice Norway, Joakim Carli, Matthew Martin explains why the burden of the debt on the citizens of the global North and South has never been higher; why the debt crisis has returned after debt was cancelled in the 1990s and 2000s; what negative impact this is having on all of our lives; how we can end corruption in debt; what needs to be done to provide debt relief to end the crisis, and how this can be done; why we need to reform the global system to stop debt crises happening again; and how the citizens of the world can unite to make this happen.  You can listen to the podcast here.

Matthew Martin of Development Finance International participated in a mission to Sweden, invited by the Archbishop of Uppsala and organised by act Church of Sweden, to discuss the new developing country debt crisis and gauge the appetite for a new national campaign to resolve the crisis. He and Marina Zucker Marques (Boston University, Jubilee Commission) held meetings with religious and political leaders, government officials, experts, academics and students over 4 days in Stockholm and Uppsala. The mission concluded that there is a strong basis in Sweden for a potential campaign for a new round of debt relief for the global South. 

DFI signed a contract with the Government of Benin for the installation and capacity-building of its officials on the Commonwealth Meridian computerised debt management system, to be installed in the Caisse Autonome de Gestion de la Dette (CAGD) in Cotonou.  The project became effective on 13 July, and is financed by the World Bank. The work is expected to last a maximum of 15 months, through until October 2027, and will ensure that the CAGD develops the capacity to record, report on and manage its external and domestic debt using the Francophone version of the Meridian computer system. This will allow Benin to improve even further its high scores for transparency and accountability on debt assessed by the World Bank.

Jose Maurel and Matthew Martin of DFI conducted a webinar for staff of the UK and Norwegian governments, on Debt Accountability and Transparency to Domestic Stakeholders. The webinar presented the lessons of the study conducted for IBP in 2024 on this issue, as well as DFI’s subsequent continued engagement on these issues. It assessed best practice throughout the debt strategy and management cycle, and urged development partners to prioritise this issue through comprehensive country-level projects bringing governments and other stakeholders together to design national accountability and transparency frameworks. The webinar was part of a series of events briefing the UK government on debt issues in the buildup to its 2027 UK G20 Presidency, and also followed on from the Norwegian government’s decision to make debt accountability and transparency one of its top priorities for global development.

DFI participated as lead speaker on debt issues in a meeting of UK non-government experts with UK government officials, on key development finance issues for the 2027 UK G20 presidency, organised jointly by Sharing Strategies and the UK Treasury. DFI emphasised two quick wins on which the UK government could reach conclusions during its Presidency – a UNCAC resolution to end corruption in debt contracts; and PFM assistance to countries to improve their accountability and transparency to domestic stakeholders so as to avoid “hidden debts”. It also presented the key findings of its report to the UN Secretary General on ambitious measures to resolve the new global debt crisis, and suggested that the UK should aim to promote much deeper HIPC-style debt relief for lower-income and disaster-affected countries, as well as to assist comprehensive borrowing cost reduction measures for market-accessing countries. Debt Justice emphasised the need for an anti-vulture fund law to get all commercial creditors to provide their fair share of debt relief, and a UN Debt Framework Convention to avoid recurring debt crisis. The meeting is intended to be the first in a series leading to 2027.

DFI participated in a series of meetings with the Norwegian government and other stakeholders to discuss two issues which are central to the government’s new “Turning Point” global development policy. The focus was on the new global debt crisis: at a public event on 5 May, the Secretary of State for Development committed to putting measures to resolve this crisis at the heart of the new policy. DFI then held meetings with officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NORAD to discuss the concrete measures and initiatives which could be priorities in this strategy. On 6 May, DFI presented the latest findings from the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index, including the major steps forward on governments taking measures to reduce inequality which have been achieved in Africa with Norwegian and Nordic partners in 2025/26.

DFI is today launching a report submitted to the UN Secretary General, showing the amount which debt relief could contribute to filling the SDG financing gap. Using the Debt Watch database, which contains projections of public debt service for almost all G77 countries, DFI has simulated scenarios for debt relief and borrowing cost reductions which match the proposals made by the UN Secretary General, the Jubilee debt relief campaign and the South African G20 presidency.

The report can be found here. It finds that G77 countries are paying US$8.8 billion in debt service in 2026. These measures could save G77 countries US$3.4 trillion a year. Even in a more likely scenario where eligibility for debt relief and cost reduction is restricted by creditors, the contribution would be in the hundreds of billions. At the level of individual countries, it would allow poorer G77 members to meet their SDG financing gaps and double their spending on all the social and environmental SDGs including climate.

DFI will soon be examining in more detail how this relief can be delivered, with a view to making clear and affordable proposals for the UK presidency of the G20 and G7 in 2027.