The new global development finance: Africa, the rating agencies and combatting the big con

The current development finance architecture needs to be given a revamp and made fit for purpose. The world is getting exposed to higher and higher levels of shocks – ranging from climate change to pandemics and conflict. There is thus need to make the global financial system more shock-resistant and versatile. The essence of the funding model is to ramp up long-term, low-cost lending to African countries, so that they can make their citizens and communities more resilient to shocks. Some leaders in the Global South, for example Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, have led the charge for reforms of global development finance. The so-called Bridgetown Initiative (BI) proposes urgent reforms to the global financial architecture to mobilize short-tern liquidity for crisis response, including a tripling of concessional loans and grants to the poorest countries. With hindsight, these calls for reforms of global development finance may be a result of the recognition of the historically limited concrete actions on financing development.