Sovereign Debt, Incapacity and Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The thesis that sovereign debt and capital flight have some causative effect on the growing insecurity in Africa is one that has not been fully examined. That is the submission of this paper and the need to address it. Fighting insecurity comes at a huge cost and much of the funds diverted to the problem ought to have been available for agriculture bost, health, education and infrastructure needs. The contractual obligation to debt service and the volatility of commodity-dependent economies of the nations in the global market remains a major challenge. Several initiatives to manage the debt are in place by the lending institutions such as IMF, World Bank including an entity like the Paris Club through restructuring, cancellation, etc. Such economic and management strategies have helped to ameliorate but not appreciably solved the problems. This is because they are usually not comprehensive enough debt resumes from the necessity for further borrowings and the profitability of fresh lending by commercial lenders. The legal framework for managing insecurity exists from the global to the regional and national jurisdictions, meaning that the responsibility is collective. However, the fact remains that higher access to funding is required to increase the capacity of the governments to deal with the issues and avoid the vicious cycle of debt, poverty and insecurity in Sub-Saharan African nations.