Borrowers’ Platform Forms
- Egypt’s finance minister will chair a new UN‑backed Borrowers’ Platform launched at the IMF‑World Bank spring meetings. - The move comes as African debt burdens are cited near $11.7 trillion while global development aid has fallen about 23 percent. - The platform, with UNCTAD as secretariat, reflects borrowers organising more explicitly in response to a creditor system that remains better coordinated than its debtors. ( )
Developing countries launched a new Borrowers’ Platform in Washington on April 15, with Egypt’s finance minister Ahmed Kouchouk named chair and UN Trade and Development as secretariat. (unctad.org) The launch took place during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings, which ran from April 13 to 18 in Washington, D.C. UN Trade and Development said the group will bring together finance ministers and central bank governors from eligible developing countries. (worldbank.org) (unctad.org) UN Trade and Development said the platform is meant to improve debt-management capacity, coordinate borrowers more closely and give them a collective voice in debt talks. Pakistan’s finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb was named vice chair. (unctad.org) The push comes as developing countries’ external debt reached $11.7 trillion in 2024, up 2.6% from 2023, according to UN Trade and Development. The agency estimated debt-service payments at $1.6 trillion in 2024. (unctad.org) African governments have been pressing this case in debt talks for months as refinancing costs stay high and more bond repayments come due. The African Development Bank said Africa’s total public debt rose to more than $1.8 trillion between 2010 and 2024, while its 2024 note on external debt put Africa’s external debt near $1.15 trillion by end-2023. (afdb.org 1) (afdb.org 2) The immediate complaint from borrowers is structural: creditor groups already have formal ways to coordinate, while debtors usually negotiate case by case. UN Trade and Development said the platform was created to fill that gap in the international financial system. (unctad.org) The idea was formalized in July 2025 in the Sevilla Commitment at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development. UN Trade and Development said a working group then began setting up the platform after a ministerial roundtable at the World Bank-IMF annual meetings in October 2025. (unctad.org) Aid flows have also weakened, though the broadest official measure does not show a drop as steep as 23%. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said official development assistance from its donor members fell 7.1% in real terms in 2024 to $212.1 billion. (oecd.org) That leaves the new platform with a narrower first task than rewriting debt rules: help borrowers compare terms, build technical capacity and show up to negotiations less alone. The next test is whether enough finance ministries treat it as a working bloc rather than another meeting-room coalition. (unctad.org)
