Ruto and Biden Advocate for Agile Financial Reforms

Kenya’s President Ruto and U.S. President Biden call for agile reforms in international financial systems to aid low-income countries dealing with crises like climate change. They propose coordinated support and debt relief, emphasizing the need for increased lending capacities and private-sector financing.

Kenya's President William Ruto said on Thursday it was important to make the international financial system more agile in order to help countries deal with crises, and welcomed U.S. support for such reforms. Speaking at the start of a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, Ruto said he recently convened a summit for the World Bank's International Development Association to address concerns about high debt burdens faced by many low-income countries.

He said the goal was to find ways to make international financial institutions "much more sensitive, agile and ... able to) respond to pressing issues compounded by climate change, inflation and interest rates." African leaders last month called for wealthy countries to commit record contributions of at least $120 billion to the association, a low-interest facility that developing nations rely on to help fund their development and combat climate change.

Donors will make cash pledges to the facility, which offers long-term loans with low interest rates, at a conference to be held in Japan in December. The U.S. and other countries have pressed for reforms at the World Bank and other multilateral development banks to increase their lending capacities in order to better help low-income countries brace for climate change and adjust to a more digital workplace.

Biden and Ruto will launch a plan called the Nairobi-Washington Vision to urge the international community to do more to support countries that want to enact reforms and invest in their development but remain constrained by high debt burdens, the White House said. The document calls on international financial institutions to provide coordinated packages of support and creditor countries, including China, to provide forms of debt relief or other assistance, and urges multilateral development banks to encourage more private-sector financing on better terms.

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