Debt and Development: Issues raised by the Dakar Consensus.

Summary The first official trip to Africa by the new IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, took place in Dakar on December 2, 2019, to participate in an international conference organized by the Republic of Senegal and the Cercle des économistes, in partnership with the IMF, the World Bank, and the United Nations. Entitled "Sustainable Development and Sustainable Debt: Striking the Right Balance," this meeting was exceptional in that six heads of state (representing Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire, and Benin) and the Prime Minister of Mali participated in an open and symmetrical dialogue with the leaders of international organizations and the many experts and academics who came for the occasion. Unusually, African voices clearly dominated the debates, placing the other participants in a position of listening and reacting to the analyses and suggestions that were made.