Zimbabwe - High Level Meeting Aims for Comprehensive Roadmap Towards Resolving the Country's $21 Billion Debt and Arrears

25 November 2024

African Development Bank (Abidjan)

WHAT: 6th High-Level Structured Dialogue on Zimbabwe's Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution Process

WHO: Government of Zimbabwe, and development partners.

WHEN: Monday 25 November 2024; 08:00 - 14:00 local time (GMT+2)

WHERE: Harare International Conference Centre (Rainbow Towers Hotel), Harare, Zimbabwe (In-person only).

The government of Zimbabwe is hosting a High-Level meeting in Harare to assess the progress of the dialogue process between the country and development partners over its $21 billion debt and arrears.

The meeting will be addressed by the President of Zimbabwe, Dr Emmerson Mnangagwa, who will deliver a keynote speech, and the President and Chairman of the Boards of Directors of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who is the champion of Zimbabwe's Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution process.

The High-Level Facilitator of the dialogue, former President of the Republic of Mozambique, Joaquim A. Chissano, will be represented by his adviser, Ambassador Nuno Tomas.

The meeting will be attended by development partners including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme, the diplomatic community, representatives from the private sector, farmers' organizations, civil society groups, and the media.

This is the sixth meeting held under the Structured Dialogue Platform that was launched in December 2022 to bring together Zimbabwe and its creditors to find ways of tackling the country's crippling burden of debt and arrears that have accumulated for more than 20 years.

As of August 2024, Zimbabwe's total public debt was estimated at about $21 billion, representing a debt-to-GDP ratio of 97%, leaving the country with limited financial capacity for its development needs. Of the $21 billion, external debt owed to bilateral and multilateral creditors accounts for $12.3 billion. The country's biggest multilateral creditors are the World Bank which is owed $1.5 billion, the African Development Bank Group $760 million, and the European Investment Bank $427 million. Domestic debt amounts to US$8.7 billion.

After more than two decades of suffering the debilitating effects of debt and mounting arrears, Zimbabwe's President Mnangagwa in 2022 requested Dr Adesina to champion the arrears clearance and debt resolution, and former President of Mozambique Joachim Chissano to facilitate the political and economic governance reforms process with the creditor countries.

Monday's meeting will receive updates from the sector working groups led by the government and development partners on the three main pillars of the process: Economic Growth and Stability, Governance, and Land Tenure and Compensation.

The sector working group for Economic growth and stability is co-chaired by the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, the IMF and the World Bank. The group is, among other issues, developing policy reforms to improve exchange rate management and to eliminate the quasi-fiscal operations of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. This action will eliminate excess printing of local currency by the central bank and induce discipline in contracting and repayments of public debt.

The Governance sector working group is co-chaired by the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and the European Union. The group's work focuses on governance issues in areas covering respect for human rights, strengthening of democratic principles and the rule of law, access to justice and combating corruption, electoral reform, peace and reconciliation, freedom of expression and public access to information.

The third group working on land tenure and farmer compensation is co-chaired by the Office of the President and Cabinet, Switzerland, and the United Nations Development Programme. It covers land tenure reforms, former farm owners' compensation under the Global Compensation Deed and Farmer compensation under the Bilateral Investment Partnership Promotion Agreements.

The meeting is expected to close with the presentation of a comprehensive roadmap for the arrears clearance and debt resolution process.

The African Development Bank Group provided a grant of $4.1 million to facilitate the government of Zimbabwe's dialogue with its creditors.

Read the original article on African Development Bank (AfDB).