Debt-for-Development swaps
Insights from recent deals
- ZOOM WEBINAR
- Wednesday 17th December
- 3:00 pm Paris time
Since 2021, commercial Debt-for-Development Swaps (D4D) have gained prominence as potential instrument to jointly address sovereign debt vulnerabilities and long-term fiscal commitments to development objectives. Supported by credit enhancement from public and private partners, these transactions allow governments to refinance costly commercial debt on improved terms and redirect the resulting savings to climate, nature, and social investments.
The year 2024 marked a turning point, with five new operations closed across Latin America, the Caribbean, but also West Africa, with a deal in Côte d’Ivoire that drew particular attention. New actors (including CAF, the EIB, the World Bank, and impact investors) entered the space, and several countries (Barbados, Ecuador) completed follow-up deals. Yet momentum stalled abruptly in 2025, raising concerns about the long-term scalability and institutionalisation of D4D as a financing tool.
The Finance for Development Lab has played an active role as a platform shaping this debate.
Recent contributions include:
- The work by Martin Kessler, Hamouda Chekir, and Charles Albinet (2024) that provided policy-makers with a framework to assess the relevance of swaps.
- Adil Ababou (2025) analysis on the role of D4D swaps within broader public financial management perspective.
- The assessment conducted by Ishac Diwan & Jules Devie (2025) of the World-Bank policy-based guaranteefocusing on Côte d’Ivoire’s D4D operation.
- Yoan Raih (2025) most recent article assessing the 2024 wave of deals and questioning the transparency around savings calculation.
FDL is committed to keep working on the topic, particularly on how should guarantees, political risk insurance, and other credit-enhancement instruments used in swaps be accounted for, reported, and compared across transactions.
The webinar aims to:
- Present and discuss FDL’s latest research.
- Share insights from key market participants, discussing the papers and sharing their experience.
- Hold an open a forward-looking discussion on D4Ds, in 2026 and beyond.