The President of Open Society Foundations, Mark Malloach Brown, has maintained that Ghana deserves a decent deal from creditors when it comes to restructuring the country’s debts.

The former Head of the United Nations Development Programme said this is due to the challenge Ghana find itself can not be entirely attributed to how the economy has been managed in recent times.

But he attributed it to strong external factors, like COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine war.

“Therefore any restructuring package from these creditors must be done in a way that doesn’t hurt the economy, but rather bring the county out of the current situation,” he noted.

He added, “Ghanaians, therefore, should not be punished as a result of this challenge that has hit the economy, but everything must be done to lessen the burden on them.”  

Mr Brown, who was also previously responsible for directing External Affairs at the World Bank, however, admitted that it is not to say that Ghana is without fault in terms of how it has gotten into such a situation when it comes to how it has managed its borrowing over the years.

The former Deputy Secretary General at United Nations under Kofi Annan was speaking to JoyBusiness after the launch of the Debt Sustainability Initiative by the Open Society Foundation in Washington DC USA on the sidelines of the Annual World Bank Spring Meetings.

Partial Creditors meeting on Ghana

Mr Brown’s call is coming at a time that Ghana’s external creditors (Paris Club) are expected to meet in the coming weeks to open debt restructuring negotiations with the Ghana government of Ghana.

There are some strong indications that the Partial Creditor Committee of the Paris Club may move to offer Ghana some Financing Assurances for its IMF programme request at the end of their meetings.

This was also echoed by the IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva during the launch of the Global Policy Paper by the IMF.

She was optimistic that Ghana would be able to secure the required financing assurance for its programme in the coming weeks.

Some analysts have argued that Ghana may be able to secure the financing assurance, however, closing deals when it comes to possible debt cancellation or finalising how Ghana’s debt should be structured may take a while.

What is the Debt Sustainability Initiative by Open Society
The Debt Sustainability Initiative is a $30 million three-year programme by the Open Society Foundation aimed at helping address the debt crises faced by some countries.

It is aimed at reducing the imbalances and information asymmetry between the borrower countries and the creditor in order to limit the exacerbating inequalities within and amount countries.

The initiative is targeted at three areas namely; at the country level - which ensures access to progressive debt advisory services for selected governments, at the Cross Country Level - which includes, supporting civil society actors to advocate effectively and peer learning policymakers and at the multilateral level by engaging international financing institution to advocate for changes in their risk assessment around debt.

Pushing for a new debt regime
Mr Brown told JoyBusiness that, “We do admit that countries  need to be responsible for the debt that they incur but the repayment terms should be done in a way that does not hurt these countries.”

He added, “We want to move to more fair and just payment terms when it comes to debt restructuring.”

“There is the need to push for more favourable terms when it comes to countries paying their debt back to these creditors.”

He noted that we won't look at ways that ensure that this debt restructuring does not result in austerity that hurts the value in the society and countries like Ghana.

Mr Brown said he is in favour of moving for more just and favourable terms and debt restructuring deals.

He maintained that everything must be done to ensure that the value in the society and in Ghana do not suffer, in times like these.