OSC Finance Ministers Approve 'Common Leveraging Union'

The OSC groups invited other Global South countries to join the CLUB effort.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia— Finance ministers from the Organisation of Southern Cooperation have adopted bylaws establishing the Common Leveraging Union of Borrowers (CLUB), described as a "union of sovereign debtors", writes Winston Mwale.

The CLUB aims to pool member states' capacities to reduce external debt burdens and secure more favourable financing conducive to “transformative, sustainable, and multidimensional development," according to an OSC press release Wednesday.

The ministers called for creditors to work with debtors “in the spirit of equality amongst parties, equity in their relations, and solidarity instead of charity” to reform global finance architecture to better serve developing countries.

The OSC groups invited other Global South countries to join the CLUB effort.

They also urged other organisations to partner with the CLUB as “the sovereign debtors’ instrument of the Global South."

As OSC members that will chair the Group of 77 and Non-Aligned Movement starting January 2024, the ministers called those groups "to engage proactively with the OSC and, in particular, the CLUB, to achieve our shared aspirations.”

The ministers said the CLUB supports the OSC’s “Third Way of Development” to foster “opportunities through South-South cooperation” and Southern integration while reducing migratory pressures.

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