Running:
The debt crisis isn’t just about money – it’s about sovereignty. When countries spend more on debt service than on health and education combined, we are not witnessing economics, but a system of rule by extraction that locks societies into dependency and forecloses democratic choice.
This session interrogates how the global debt architecture underpins aid dependence, trade asymmetries, and philanthropic inadequacy. It asks whether debt is truly a form of development finance or the keystone of a control system that maintains creditor dominance.
Building on the FfD4 Seville Commitment — which acknowledged a $4 trillion SDG financing gap while preserving creditor veto power — this dialogue goes deeper: exposing how debt servicing, combined with the $88.6 billion annual illicit financial flows sustains an entire architecture of extraction. We will examine whether proposed reforms such as debt-for-climate swaps represent real progress or simply a “Debt Trap 2.0” that rebrands extraction in greener language.
📅 Date: November 4th, 2025
⏰ Time: 3.30PM UK / 4.30PM CET / 5.30PM SAST / 10.30AM ET / 7.30AM PST
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Mahmoud Mohieldin is an economist with over 30 years of experience in international finance and development. He currently serves as the United Nations Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and is a Professor of Economics and Finance at Cairo University. He also holds visiting positions at Columbia University and the Brookings Institution.
Dr. Mohieldin recently joined the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and was elected as a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science in 2024. He serves as Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Business of Economic Growth and was the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP27.
From 2020 to 2024, he served as Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund, representing twelve Middle Eastern countries. Previously, he spent a decade at the World Bank Group (2010-2020) in senior roles including Senior Vice President for the 2030 Development Agenda and Managing Director. Before that, he was Egypt’s first Minister of Investment (2004-2010), leading significant economic reforms that enhanced the business environment and increased foreign direct investment.
Dr. Mohieldin holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Warwick and has received honorary doctorates from several institutions. He has authored multiple books and publications on economics, finance, and sustainable development, including recent works on the SDGs and Egypt’s political economy. LinkedIn: www.linkedIn.com/in/mmohieldin/
Bodo Ellmers is Director of Global Policy Forum Europe, a think tank that focuses on multilateral affairs. He is also the lead expert for the work area ‘Financing for Development and Reform of the International Financial Architecture’ at GPF Europe. This includes research activities, advocacy at international organizations and contributions to activist networks such as the Global Alliance for Tax Justice and the CSO Financing for Development Mechanism.
Before joining GPF Europe, he worked in the Secretariat of the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) in Brussels for over a decade, in his latest position as Head of Policy. His responsibilities included to coordinate European CSO´s advocacy at IMF and World Bank. He has also been a member of UNCTAD Expert Group on Sovereign Debt Workout Mechanisms, which developed the Roadmap and Guide on Sovereign Debt workouts, and consulted the UN General Assembly´s work on the Basic Principles on Sovereign Debt Restructurings, adopted in 2015. He has published numerous papers and blogs on financing for development in general, and debt architecture reform in particular.
Daniel Bradlow is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Global Economic Governance Initiative at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. He is a Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria; G20 Senior Fellow, South African Institute of International Affairs; Compliance Officer, Social and Environmental Compliance Unit, United Nations Development Programme; Professor Emeritus, American University Washington College of Law; and Academic Circle Co-Chair, advising the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development.
He was previously the South African Research Chair Initiative (SARCHI) Professor of International Development Law and African Economic Relations, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria; Head, International Economic Relations and Policy Department, South African Reserve Bank; Member and Chair, Roster of Experts, Independent Review Mechanism, African Development Bank; and consultant to numerous international organizations. His publications include “The Law of International Financial Institutions,” “Re-Thinking the Sustainability of Sovereign Debt” and “A New Conceptual Framework for African Sovereign Debt: Finding an Optimal Outcome that Addresses 5 Challenges.”