2021 PROJECTS

DEBT AND POST-COVID RECOVERY

In 2021, the SAGE Fund in partnership with the FORGE funders supported a thematic round of grants on debt and post-COVID recovery. For low- and middle-income countries in the Global South, debt is a crucial financing tool, and in some cases, the primary one available due to shrinking development aid and limited capacity to expand revenue collection, including taxes. Developing countries for decades have been faced with unsustainable debt burdens that threaten their ability to meet basic needs, let alone realize rights and development goals. Though global debt campaigns made significant progress on this issue in the 1990s, debt levels have been increasing in recent years and have soared due to the COVID-19 global recession, directly impacting the ability of governments to meet social and economic rights, labor standards, and social protection, particularly of vulnerable groups. In addition, the climate crisis has prompted a debate around what debt means for climate action and how it impacts availability of funds to fund climate justice, mitigation and adaptation.

Despite the magnitude of these challenges, the rising narrative that recognizes debt as a structural problem together with the current policy window, presents a unique opportunity to promote a more equitable and sustainable global economy and financial system. It also provides an opportunity to rebuild and sustain a permanent, powerful, cross-field debt justice movement. FORGE, through its 2021 inaugural grant round led by the SAGE Fund, seeks to counter the corrosive impact of sovereign debt on the protection and realization of labor, climate, gender and social justice in the context of a post-COVID recovery by supporting the development of an expanded cross-field debt justice movement to advocate for:

  • Short and medium-term debt relief and restructuring, and

  • In the longer term, laying the groundwork for a global financial system that supports greater social protection, a fair and well-resourced care economy, a green and inclusive just transition, and the realization of economic and social rights.

grant round locations

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PAN AFRICAN FEMINISTS FOR DEBT-FREE AND JUST CARE ECONOMY

The project will promote the adoption of a care economy and increase the fiscal space for its financing in three heavily indebted African countries, through research, advocacy, campaigns, and communications advanced by a network of feminist organizations.  

ORGANIZATION

  • African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), femnet.org, Kenya

 

CHALLENGING THE IFI TREATMENT OF DEBT AND DEVELOPMENT IN (POST-)COVID ERA

The project will push for reform of governance and decision-making at the IMF and World Bank to ensure a more just system for treatment of debt and development by reforming voting rights to ensure Global South representation, countering austerity policy prescriptions and narratives, and promoting the use of Special Drawing Rights as a non-debt tool for development finance.  

ORGANIZATION

 

CONFRONTING THE CARIBBEAN DEBT CHALLENGE AND BUILDING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The project will strengthen a regional debt justice movement in the Caribbean focused on the twin debt and climate crises to achieve debt relief, redirect funds for climate action, and increase the visibility and participation of the Caribbean in the global debt community.

ORGANIZATIONS

 

Sovereign Debt and Day-to-Day Life: Activism on the Effects of Indebtedness on the Environment, Labor, Care, and Protection

The project will construct new rights-based narratives on the impacts of sovereign debt on labor, care and access to food, drawing upon the debt crisis underway in Argentina. It will use the analysis and narratives to fuel additional broad-based social mobilization in Argentina and increase public debate on debt and accountability in Latin America through the InterAmerican Human Rights System.

ORGANIZATION

  • Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), cels.org.ar, Argentina  

 

Challenging Private Creditors for People's Recovery

The project will expose and challenge the role of private creditors in hindering a just, green, and care centered recovery while laying the groundwork for creating a sense of urgency and action among the public, governments, and international policymakers to bring private creditors into an independent sovereign debt workout mechanism.

ORGANIZATIONS

 

Sovereign Debt Architecture Reform Towards a Just and Sustainable Post-COVID Global Economy

The project will energize a cross-sectoral global debt justice movement and advance a coordinated post-COVID debt agenda to expand debt cancellation (short-term) and make significant strides towards closing the regulatory gaps in debt governance and putting in place mechanisms to prevent over-indebtedness in the future (long-term), through a coordinated joint strategy from the key debt justice platforms.

ORGANIZATIONs

  • European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), eurodad.org, Belgium

  • Latin American Network for Economic and Social Justice (Latinddad), latindadd.org, Peru

  • Jubilee USA Network (JUS), jubileeusa.org, USA

  • African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (Afrodad), afrodad.org, Zimbabwe

  • Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), apmdd.org, Philippines

 

Sustainable Development and Debt: Solutions for a Just Future

The project will build cross labor-debt movement capacity with union affiliates at the country level (5 distressed countries) advocating for debt relief and restructuring to enable a pro-development approach that advances social protection, climate action, and inclusive jobs growth; and at the global level to push for a permanent debt relief mechanism that allows social protection and a just transition to advance.

ORGANIZATION

  • International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), ituc-csi.org, Belgium

Citizen Action for Debt Justice in Southern Africa

The project will empower and amplify a regional debt justice movement in Southern Africa aimed at increasing pressure on public and private creditors to reduce debt payments to sustainable levels; equip civil society to track debt and monitor government borrowing; and reign in corrupt and unaccountable government debt management practices, in preparation for oncoming debt crisis due to sharpest increase in government debt in 30 years. 

ORGANIZATIONS

  • Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), zimcodd.org, Zimbabwe 

  • Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), cafod.org.uk, UK

  • Southern Africa People Solidarity Network (SAPSN), sapsn.net, Zimbabwe 

 

FORGE (Funders Organized for Rights in the Global Economy) is a collaborative of leading donors working towards a global economy that works for all people and the planet, shaped by and accountable to worker and community-led movements. FORGE is designed to enable participating funders to engage in shared learning, aligned funding strategies and pooled funding. FORGE funders include the Ford Foundation, Fundación Avina, Humanity United, Laudes Foundation, Open Society Foundations, SAGE Fund, True Costs Initiative, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, Foundation for a Just Society, Omidyar Network, and Wallace Global Fund.

To learn more, please visit our FORGE page as well as the FORGE website.

The SAGE Fund is proud to be a part of FORGE, as a strategic thought partner in operationalizing and launching FORGE (beginning in 2020) and in leading FORGE’s collaborative grantmaking (ongoing). The SAGE Fund is an incubator for cultivating new approaches to strengthening accountability for economic actors and tackling critical gaps in protection in the global economy.