BY INVITATION ONLY

Taking Stock of the Sovereign Debt Landscape: Lessons Learned and Charting a Better Path Forward

Concept:

Recent international meetings have seen surprising convergence on reform priorities, at a moment when debt vulnerabilities across developing countries remain acute. At the same time, political momentum for reform seems stunted. What are those proposals on the table? And what would it take to build political momentum to implement them?

Previous roundtables convened by the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee (RBWC), Friedrich-Ebert- Stiftung (FES) New York, and Center for Global Development (CGD) have encouraged a high-level discussion engaging representatives of finance ministries, central banks, think tanks and academia on the role of sovereign debt in the global economy and the need for better and faster relief for indebted countries. In this roundtable on the sidelines of the 2026 Spring Meetings, the goal is to discuss why the policy consensus has remained slow to move despite a series of major shocks to developing countries.

1. Taking Stock: Where do current reform proposals stand?

Since 2023, a few proposals have emerged and been endorsed by different institutions. We will begin with a structured overview of those proposals currently on the table to address sovereign debt vulnerabilities. Drawing on a background paper by CGD experts that organizes and describes these proposals, this session will map the landscape of the debt weaknesses, and reform ideas — from incremental improvements within the existing architecture to more ambitious institutional or legal innovations. The aim is not only to catalogue proposals, but to assess their traction, feasibility, and gaps.

2. What Is Possible Now?

Building convergence around priority initiatives for 2027 G20 UK Presidency The second session will be forward-looking and strategic. Rather than generating another long list of recommendations, the goal is to begin building consensus around one or two concrete initiatives that could realistically be advanced in the near term — including at the G20 and other relevant political fora.

This discussion will be framed with the understanding that the conversation will continue at the Annual Meetings in Bangkok, where we aim to reconvene and assess progress. Overall, the event seeks to create a bridge between technical proposals and political strategy — moving from “what should be done” to “what can be done now,” and by whom.