World Bank hosts illegitimate debt roundtable

Monday represented an important step forward in the illegitimate debt campaign: after months and indeed years of pushing the World Bank to engage with the concept of illegitimate debt, yesterday the Bank hosted a ‘roundtable’ discussion at its headquarters in Washington DC. WB staff, Executive Directors and other country representatives, academics and civil society groups took part in the discussion of concepts and practices regarding odious and illegitimate debt, and responsible lending. While there weren't any major breakthroughs in the meeting itself, even to have this dialogue is a good result. A report will be produced of the day's discussions and there are several other conferences later in the year which indicates that the topic of illegitimate debt will receive increasing attention in the coming months.