Debt and Fiscal Justice Archives

Navy title card reading Who Gets to Write the Tax Rules, with the subtitle Two negotiations, one generation of public finance. JZ Notes, Janet Zhou.

Who Gets to Write the Tax Rules: Two Negotiations That Will Shape African Public Finance

6 days ago in

Accountability

Two negotiations now under way will shape African public finance for a generation. The UN tax convention is in line-by-line drafting and the Borrowers’ Platform is building a debtor caucus that has never existed. Both will be won or lost in clauses that read like housekeeping.

From Mobilising to Making: Minerals, Work and Africa’s Triple Burden

2 weeks ago in

Accountability

Domestic resource mobilisation captures a larger share of value that already exists. Resource creation builds what an economy cannot yet make. Africa’s minerals are the test case, and the jobs are the measure.

The Fine Print That Decides Who Eats

3 weeks ago in

Care Work

Social spending floors sit in IMF programmes as indicative targets, so they carry no consequence when they break. Across Africa the adjustment lands on unpaid care work.

The Billion-Dollar Trust Gap: What Zimbabwe’s Diaspora Could Build Next

1 month ago in

Accountability

Last week I wrote about the nurse in Manchester who wires her sister’s school fees to Harare every month. Look closer at what her money buys. School fees. A grandmother’s blood pressure tablets. Crèche fees so a cousin can keep her market stall. The wire

Africa’s $100 Billion Family: From Remittances to Real Power

1 month ago in

Debt Justice

Every month, a nurse in Manchester wires her sister’s school fees to Harare. A driver in Houston sends rent money to his mother in Lagos. A teacher in Johannesburg pays a cousin’s hospital bill in Bulawayo. None of them call this development finance. They call

Who Cares for the Minerals Boom? Africa, Extraction and the Other Supply Chain

2 months ago in

Care Work

It has been some months since I last wrote here. One question pulled me back: as the world scrambles for Africa’s critical minerals, who carries the cost, and who captures the value? Africa is setting new terms Something is shifting across the continent. In February

Reclaiming Power, Reimagining Debt under Africa’s Moment

9 months ago in

Debt Justice

When I entered the High-Level Dialogue on Rethinking Debt Sustainability and Exploring Africa’s Alternative Financing Models on 17 November 2025 in Johannesburg, I felt the pulse of a continent refusing to be defined by its liabilities. Convened by the African Union Commission, AFRODAD, UNDP, UNECA,

Is Zimbabwe’s Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution Structured Dialogue the panacea to decades long debt crisis?

3 years ago in

Debt Justice

In the early 2000s, Zimbabwe went on to default on its external debt obligations as its political and economic crisis turned ugly with the Fast Track Land Reform Programme causing internal chaos, volatility and shocks to capital. Arrears and penalties began to accumulate and currently

Digitalisation implications on macro-economic stability: Moving from cliché to government action- (1)

5 years ago in

Digital Economy

While digitalization and automation are not new, they have accelerated in recent years, and the wave of innovation has reshaped the whole global economy. Many governments, public institutions, and private players speak to the need to digitalise with the view that it is the panacea

Digitalisation implications on macro-economic stability: Moving from cliché to government action- (2)

5 years ago in

Digital Economy

Continued from Part (1) Turning to the meaning of macro-economic stability from the government priorities, this entails the stability of prices: A low inflation of under 10% per annum is considered as the benchmark. Also, the exchange rate must be stable, characterized by parallel market

Category: Debt and Fiscal Justice