A/RES/74/203
External debt sustainability and development
address the challenge of financing and creating an enabling environment at all levels
for sustainable development in the spirit of global partn ership and solidarity,
Reaffirming further the Paris Agreement, 1 and encouraging all its parties to fully
implement the Agreement, and parties to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change 2 that have not yet done so to deposit their instruments of
ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, where appropriate, as soon as possible,
Recalling the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its
Impact on Development and its outcome document, 3
Recalling also the 2019 Economic and Social Council forum on financing for
development follow-up, its intergovernmentally agreed conclusions and
recommendations 4 and the High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development held
under the auspices of the General Assembly,
Emphasizing that debt sustainability is essential for underpinning growth,
underlining the importance of debt sustainability, debt transparency and effective debt
management to the efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and
acknowledging that debt crises are costly and disruptive, including for employment
and productive investment, and tend to be followed by cuts in public spending,
including on health and education, affecting the poor and vulnerable in particular,
Reaffirming that each country has primary responsibility for its own
development, including through maintaining its own debt sustainability, and that the
role of national policies and development strategies, including in the area of debt
management, is central to the achievement of sustainable development, and
recognizing that national efforts, including to achieve development goals and to
maintain debt sustainability, should be complemented by supportive global
programmes, measures and policies aimed at expanding the development
opportunities of developing countries, while taking into account national conditions
and ensuring respect for national ownership, strategies and sovereignty,
Reiterating that debt sustainability depends on a confluence of many factors at
the international and national levels, and emphasizing that country-specific
circumstances and the impact of external shocks, such as volatile commodity and
energy prices, more intense and frequent natural disasters and international capital
flows, should continue to be taken into account in debt sustainability analyses,
Expressing concern about the adverse impact of the continuing fragility of the
global economy and the slow pace of the restoration of global growth and trade,
including the impact on development, cognizant that the global economy remains in
a challenging phase, with many downside risks, including net negative capital flows
from some emerging and developing economies, continued low commodity prices,
high unemployment, in particular among young people, women, persons with
disabilities and other people in vulnerable situations, and rising private and public
indebtedness in many developing countries, and stressing the need for continuing
efforts to address systemic fragilities and imbalances and to reform and s trengthen
the international financial system while implementing the reforms agreed upon to date
to attend to these challenges and to make progress towards sustaining global demand,
Expressing deep concern that global growth has remained strongly dependent
on unprecedented increases in global debt stocks in the years since the global financial
crisis, and, in conjunction with the fast integration of developing countries into
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4
2/9
See FCCC/CP/2015/10/Add.1, decision 1/CP.21, annex.
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1771, No. 30822.
Resolution 63/303, annex.
See E/FFDF/2019/3.
19-22416