Arrested development and austerity: Avoiding the debt trap with Daniel Munevar & María José Romero
Channel: Crash Course
Date: 2021-04-08

Sara and Rodrigo speak to Daniel Munevar & María José Romero from Eurodad and ask what are the effects of growing debt piles for the public heath care sector in the Global South? How can we prevent that IMF austerity measures will arrest development efforts in the next decade? And which institutional changes are needed at the level of International Financial Institutions to avoid policy responses that create new debt traps?

00:00 Intro by Sara Murawski and Rodrigo Fernandez
04:24 Introduction of Daniel Munevar and María José Romero
06:24 Daniel Monevar, explaining Arrested development, Debt and Austerity post Covid 19
07:49 Undertanding the Dynamics of the Debt Crisis
12:46 The role of the IMF in the Crisis
20:23 What Needs to be Done?
23:23 María José Romero: The World Bank’s Response: Maximising Finance for Development
27:46 World Banks response to the Pandemic (Key Features)
36:56 Conclusion and Policy recommendations
39:19 Q&A: Daniel on used Data, and about debt from non financial corporations
43:00 Q&A: Daniel on IMF and Climate Commitments
47:10 Q&A: Daniel, According to IMF Debt is Sustainable?
48:35 Q&A: Daniel, where to look for decisions and solutions at IMF?
52:26 Q&A: María José on the WB and Private Sector Bias.
56:55 Q&A: María José on the Program ‘From Billions to Trillions’ and impact COVID-19.
01:03:15 Q&A: María José on future of Public Finance
01:07:13 Q&A: Daniel on the role of Private Creditors in Debt Crisis
01:11:27 Q&A: María José - Is financing for Development designed differently for different sectors by the WB?
01:14:15 Wrap up by Sara



Since March 2020, 80 IMF lending arrangements have been approved. These arrangements arise in an era of historical global debt levels. The world is witnessing an insufficient and inadequate multilateral response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which will lock a large number of countries in a decade-long crisis of debt and austerity.


Daniel Munevar is a Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer supporting Eurodad's work on debt justice. He is interested in the analysis of the links between debt sustainability and the 2030 Agenda. Before joining Eurodad in 2020, Daniel worked for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and advising the Ministries of Finance of Colombia and Greece on debt related issues. Daniel has a Masters degree in Public Policy from the University of Texas in Austin. He speaks Spanish, English and a bit of Swedish.

María José Romero is Policy and Advocacy Manager for Eurodad's work on publicly-backed private finance and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). Her role involves research and analysis, advocacy and monitoring policy developments. She joined Eurodad in 2012 and before that she worked at the secretariat of the Latin American Network on Debt, Development and Rights (LATINDADD), based in Peru, on tax justice and development finance. While in Uruguay, her home country, she was for five years Coordinator of the IFIs Latin American Monitor project at the Third World Institute (ITeM), where her main roles were networking and policy monitoring at a regional and global level on IFI-related issues and development finance. She is currently a PhD candidate in Development Economics at SOAS, University of London, with a research project on the global promotion of public-private partnerships in health and education. 


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