New Delhi, July 2 -- As the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) kicks off in Seville, Spain, we look at how a massive debt burden on developing countries is holding them back. As an unfit global financial architecture makes accessing finance more difficult for countries in the developing world, governments are left with the option of either servicing the debt or serving the people. Read the first part.

The mounting debt burden of the developing world has reached a stage where it has completely reversed the North-South resource flows. According to the World Bank International Debt Statistics, developing countries experienced a net resource outflow when they could least afford it.

In 2022 and 2023, developi...