Reforms may help avert lost development

A commission launched by the late Pope Francis has outlined financial reforms it says could help to avert decades of lost development in poor countries that face onerous repayments as global public debts reach record levels.

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The Jubilee Commission report is published ahead of the once-a-decade UN Financing for Development Conference that takes place in Seville, Spain, later in June. The environment for this jubilee-year campaign could hardly be more different from the last — 25 years ago — that yielded billions in historic debt forgiveness.

Mariana Mazzucato, a University College London professor and member of the commission, said today's debt crisis was symptomatic of “a broken investment model”. “The solution has to be public investment strategies that build productive capacity, domestic value added and sustainable fiscal space,” she said.