OCTOBER 2024
Elena L. Daly, Andrea Lundh, Turning Debt Into Food (published in Forbes-Africa, October 21, 2024)
https://forbesafrique.com/transformer-la-dette-en-nourriture-part-i/
https://forbesafrique.com/transformer-la-dette-en-nourriture-part-ii/
English translation : https://stockholminitiativeforfoodsecurity.org/index.php/2024/10/20/turning-debt-into-food/
Two topics dominate the public policy debate at the end of 2024 — environmental degradation coupled with food insecurity and the costs of servicing the gargantuan stocks of sovereign debt that have accumulated so rapidly in this century. They are not unrelated. Environmental degradation has aggravated and accelerated climate change, which, in turn, has contributed to increased food insecurity, the effects of which will require massive capital infusions from both public and private sources. The cost of servicing colossal sovereign debt stocks — a nearly ubiquitous feature of both industrialized and developing countries — will devour much of the money needed to mitigate the effects of climate change and the food gap. The Holy Grail of public policy responses would be somehow to marry the need for sovereign debt relief with the funding of projects triggered by the rapidly changing climate and the world hunger. A more streamlined and a cost-efficient transaction structure is possible. Such structure would permit local currency funding of local agricultural projects through conversion of a portion of the beneficiary country’s external debt.
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Debt Conversion for Humanitarian and Climate Impact
https://www.icrc.org/en/publication/4712-debt-conversion-humanitarian-and-climate-impact
Elena L. Daly, a co-author of the report, advised ICRC and partner Red Cross organizations in designing and developing the RDDCM and its transaction structure in 2022-2023.
With a streamlined transaction structure, this model aims to address these problems by facilitating the rapid release of local currency in the affected country, in order to mobilize resources for National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and provide critical assistance to affected populations. Thanks to the Standby procedure to pre-arrange the activation of the RDDCM in anticipation of a humanitarian crisis or emergency, the Mechanism offers an innovative alternative for channelling climate and humanitarian funding to a locally led response, including in conflict settings that are typically deprived of other forms of climate finance.
Garcia Perez, Irene, “China Question Looms Large as EM Distressed-Debt Club Grows,” Bloomberg.com (July 27, 2022).
Click here to read the article, featuring a quote by Elena L. Daly.
Garcia Perez, Irene, Morpurgo Giulia, Ramnarayan Abhinav, “Russia’s Default Tussle With Bondholders Is Only Just Starting,” Bloomberg.com (June 7, 2022).
Click here to read the article, featuring a quote by Elena L. Daly.
Bloomberg interviewed Elena Daly and Lee C. Buchheit on the current situation affecting Russian debt (May 27, 2022).
Click here to read the full interview.
“Russian Bonds – Will Creditors Join the Fight?,” by Lee C. Buchheit and Elena Daly, SSRN (May 6, 2022).
Click here to read the article.
“Obligations russes : les créanciers prendront-ils les armes ?”, by Lee C. Buchheit and Elena Daly, Les Echos (April 29, 2022).
Click here to read the article (in French).
Garcia Perez, Irene, De Paoli Lucca, Ramnarayan Abhinav “How Sanctions Are Pushing Russia to Brink of Default,” Bloomberg.com (February 24, 2022, updated April 7, 2022).
Click here to read the article, featuring a quote by Elena L. Daly.
Comments on Chapter 8 The Restructuring Process // Sovereign Debt: A Guide for Economists and Practitioners.
To read more, click here.
Comments on Chapter 8 Sovereign Debt Process // Sovereign Debt: A Guide for Economists and Practitioners (IMF-Oxford, upcoming 2019). Speaking notes at the IMF Conference on September 19, 2018.
To read more, click here.
“Contracts in a Time of Capital Controls”, Journal of International Banking and Financial Law (September 4, 2015).
To access the complete article, click here.
Taylor, Paul “Greece May Have Blown Best Hope of Debt Deal,” NYTimes.com (April 12, 2015).
Click here to access the full article, featuring quotes by Elena Daly, on Reuters.com
Taylor, Paul, “‘Great Stretch’ to secure Greek debt return,” Reuters.com (April 13, 2014).
Click here to read the article, featuring quotes by Elena Daly, on NYTimes.com or on Reuters.com
Sovereign Debt Management, Oxford University Press, 2014