, governments throughout the developing world find their financial resources exhausted. Unable to fund necessary social and economic programs, they risk sliding into disarray.
World leaders so far have done little to ease the developing nation debt burden, despite years of debate andby the UNDP and other anti-poverty organizations. Only four countries have sought help under a 2020 program developed by the G-20 known as the common framework; just two governments reached agreement with their creditors to ease their required payments.
Despite ample borrowing in response to the pandemic, the debt burden is far lower in the United States. From 2019 to 2021, the U.S. government spent five times as much on health care as it did on interest and two-and-a-half times as much on education.In Germany, where government debt is lower than in the United States, the government devotes 10 times as much revenue to health or education as it does to interest payments.