Breaking the cycle of debt crisis

Breaking the cycle of debt crisis: how a new Stimulus Plan and the existing multilateral system can help

>Wednesday 22 February 2023 | 17:00-18:30

Amphitheater Chapsal, 27 rue Saint-Guillaume

Watch the replay:

The world is at a profound moment of global fragmentation - recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and its timing is uncertain amid geopolitical tensions, the impacts of the war in Ukraine, the soaring cost of living, the debt crisis, climate disasters and the reversal of progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNDP’s 2022 Human Development Report aptly described a new uncertainty complex, where multiple stresses are reinforcing each other and derailing development. It is a moment for world leaders to make the right choices, make the right strategic development investments and reach the furthest behind whilst addressing the short emergency needs.

As the first meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting opens in Bangalore, India, Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, will discuss the pressing challenges of the current debt crisis and imbalances in the global financial architecture that are encroaching on the governments’ approach to multilateralism today and propose a concrete stimulus plan to breakthrough from what could be a complex global financial deadlock.

A lecture by: Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Chaired by: Arancha González, Dean, Paris School of International Affairs

Welcome remarks by: Anne-Laure Kiechel, CEO, Global Sovereign Advisory (via zoom)

This event is co-organized by the Paris School of International Affairs, the Chair in Sovereign Debt and the United Nations Development Program. 

Biographies:

Achim Steiner has served as UNDP Administrator since June 2017. He is also the Vice-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group, which unites 40 UN entities working to support sustainable development.

Prior to joining UNDP, Mr Steiner was Director of the Oxford Martin School and Professorial Fellow of Balliol College, University of Oxford. He has served across the UN system, looking at global challenges from both a humanitarian and a development perspective. He led the United Nations Environment Programme (2006-2016), helping governments invest in clean technologies and renewable energy, and was Director-General of the UN Office at Nairobi. He also previously served as Director General of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Secretary General of the World Commission on Dams. Mr Steiner holds a MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Worcester College, Oxford University and a MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.

Arancha González is the third Dean of PSIA at Sciences Po and first woman to lead the world's third ranked school for Politics and International Studies (QS 2022).  

Prior to joining PSIA, Ms González served as Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation (2020-2021). She previously was Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (2013-2020). 

Anne-Laure Kiechel has more than 20 years of experience in debt and capital markets and in advising governments and public companies. In 2019, she founded Global Sovereign Advisory (GSA), an independent company that advises governments on all their strategic, economic and financial issues. GSA sponsors Sciences Po's Chair in Sovereign Debt.