Sovereign debt has been at the center of global attention lately, as tortuous negotiations between Greece and its international creditors polarized public opinion and sent shockwaves through global markets.
In many other parts of the world, however, debt is a pervasive phenomenon that rarely makes headlines.
Between 1950 and 2010, 95 developing countries have had their debts restructured more than 600 times. However, write offs from the past have done little to prevent developing countries from falling back into debt traps. Today, a quarter of all low-income countries are in or at high risk of debt distress.