For more than a decade, debt and debt service burdens have been rising across developing economies, and since the outbreak of COVID a record number of countries have been downgraded and entered into default and/or debt distress. For many countries, the current outlook looks highly precarious as they battle high levels of indebtedness, massive SDG (including climate) spending needs and high interest rates. For countries where debt burdens have either become too large to bear or with severe liquidity problems, a continued lack of access to effective debt restructuring and liquidity support in today’s complicated creditor and geopolitical landscape pose major constraints on their development prospects. For other countries, the debt crisis is “burning slower” with debt service payments consuming an ever-increasing share of revenue and expenditure and thereby crowding out much needed and urgent spending on education, health care, social protection and on dealing with climate change, etc.