Watch the webinar: Inequities in the Global Financial System: Tackling the Looming Debt Crisis in the Global South

As geopolitical shifts and emerging uncertainties continue to drive up debt servicing costs across the world, with disproportionate impacts across poor and vulnerable countries, economic systems in much of the Global South are under severe stress. From Sri Lanka and Ghana to Lebanon and Zambia, tightening global financial conditions are wreaking havoc across several emerging markets and developing economies. The situation is particularly dire in the least developed countries, with many countries in sub-Saharan Africa at high risk of debt distress. For instance, in Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy, Nigeria, some estimates show parity between the cost of debt servicing and government’s retained revenue. Soaring interest rates, rapid inflation, slowing growth, a strengthening dollar, shrinking fiscal spaces, and the cascading and connected crises are revealing stress points in the global financial architecture. To a large extent, these dynamics underscore systemic inequities in the deeply flawed world economic order. To ensure the ongoing crisis does not erase years of development gains in the Global South, a bold and urgent reform of the global financial system is key. While multilateralism and shared responsibility will continue to be relevant, far-reaching reforms are needed to support structurally weak and vulnerable economies.   

Speaker Bio 

Fred Olayele is a public policy leader, professor, and economist, with expertise in trade policy, innovation, political economy, and inclusive development. He has published and shared best practices in these areas in scholarly and popular sources globally. He holds a PhD in Economics from Lancaster University, United Kingdom, and an MA in Economics from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. He is Director, Sprott Centre for African Research and Business, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University. Dr. Olayele serves on various non-profit boards and supports many social causes. Among others, he is President, Economic Innovation Institute for Africa and member of the Academic Advisory Board, Emerging Markets Institute at Cornell University.  

Chaired by Roy Culpeper
Roy is a development economist, Honorary Senior Fellow of the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development and Global Studies, Adjunct Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, and a Fellow of the Broadbent Institute. He is Chair of the Group of 78, which focuses on international affairs and Canadian foreign policy. From January until May 2011 he was Fulbright Canada Visiting Research Chair at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. From 1995 until 2010 he was President and Chief Executive Officer of The North-South Institute, Ottawa. Earlier in his career, he was an official at the World Bank in Washington, the federal Departments of Finance and External Affairs in Ottawa, and the Planning Secretariat of the Government of Manitoba in Winnipeg. Roy Culpeper obtained his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Toronto. He has published widely on the issues of international development, finance, and global governance.