While global attention was focused, rightly, on the existential threat of climate change at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference last week, a major economic milestone was reached that should not go unnoticed — and no less in a country extremely vulnerable to the changing climate. On Dec. 13, Somalia completed debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, or HIPC, Initiative.
This collective effort, codified by the executive boards of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, reduced Somalia’s external debt to under $700 million from around $5.3 billion in 2018, providing the country with a path to economic stability and the opportunity to begin investing in its people and their future.
The Somali authorities deserve credit. Successive Somali governments over the last 10 years have built the systems and capacities and undertaken ambitious reforms. They did this all while coming out of decades of civil war, facing a global pandemic and multiple climate shocks, and battling the extremist group al-Shabab, which continues to inflict harm on the Somali people.
About the author
Alexia Latortue
Alexia Latortue is the Assistant Secretary of International Trade and Development for the United States Department of the Treasury. In this role, she oversees Treasury’s Offices of Climate Environment and Sustainable Infrastructure, International Development Finance and Policy, International Trade and Investment, and Technical Assistance. Previously she served as the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer overseeing the agency’s operations to deliver on strategic and programmatic priorities and leading the MCC team.
