Developing nations launch borrowers’ platform to strengthen debt coordination at IMF–World Bank meetings

Developing countries are set to launch a new Borrowers’ Platform in Washington on April 15 during the IMF–World Bank Spring Meetings, in a move aimed at strengthening collective debt management, improving representation, and addressing rising external financing pressures.

The initiative will be jointly led by Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Egypt’s Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouck, with the launch event scheduled at the United Nations Foundation. UN Secretary-General António Guterres is expected to attend the ceremony.

The platform is being established as a member-state-led mechanism with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development serving as its secretariat, and is designed to provide borrowing countries with a coordinated framework to manage debt challenges more effectively.

Officials said the initiative comes amid mounting debt stress in developing economies, where external debt reached $11.7 trillion in 2024, with countries increasingly forced to allocate a significant share of public revenues toward debt servicing rather than development spending.

According to UNCTAD, developing countries currently spend nearly 10 percent of government revenue on external interest payments, while least developed countries dedicate close to 25 percent of their revenues to servicing external creditors. In 54 countries representing 3.4 billion people, debt servicing now exceeds spending on either health or education.

The Borrowers’ Platform seeks to address what UNCTAD describes as a structural imbalance in the global financial system, where creditor coordination has strengthened while borrowing countries remain fragmented and under-represented.

The idea originated from the UN Secretary-General’s Expert Group on Debt in June last year and was later incorporated into the Sevilla Commitment, adopted at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in July 2025.

An initial working group comprising Pakistan, Egypt, Colombia, Honduras, Maldives, Nepal and Zambia developed the platform’s draft governance structure, participation framework, and operational modalities.

The initiative is expected to strengthen South-South cooperation, improve debt transparency, enhance technical support for borrowing nations, and increase their collective influence in global financial negotiations, while also aiming to improve market confidence through better debt management practices.

UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said the platform reflects the need for a fairer global financial system, stressing that developing countries are seeking equitable conditions where finance supports development rather than constraining it.