This report details proceedings of the Southern Africa’s Debt Conundrum conference hosted by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) for partners and stakeholders to discuss the unfolding and widening debt crisis in the region. The conference was undertaken in the context of the debt burden continuing to be a recurrent matter in the discourse of Africa’s development. The magnitude and consequences of debt in the continent were noted to have been a massive betrayal of Africa’s huge resource base, both human and material, and the failure of policy measures targeted at the management of those resources. With the real risk that unsustainable debt poses critical developmental questions and presents significant risks to global commitments such as the Sustainable Development Goals, this platform was meant to facilitate engagement and co-creation of conversations, strategic policy and advocacy solutions that addressed the on-going debt crisis in Southern Africa.

The conference was premised on the need to enable experience sharing and meaningful participation among the multiple stakeholders in attendance including those who were following the proceedings remotely, with respect to the challenges and possible interventions against the mounting debt crisis in the region.

Click here to watch the conference video