The Shamba Centre is advising the government of Sri Lanka on reforming its agriculture sector and the availability of a debt-for-nature swap where the proceeds will be targeted to regenerative agriculture.  While debt-for-nature-swaps have been executed many times, this might be the first time when an indebted nation seeks debt relief from creditors to invest in sustainable agriculture. 

While preparing the preliminary brief on debt swaps for regenerative agriculture, we engaged with the Sri Lankan Head of State, Ministers, as well as donors and UN agencies in Colombo. The biggest challenge is to identify the institutions and individuals that have the vision and expertise to lead this endeavour.

The Shamba Centre is seeking partners to work further on debt swaps as many countries face compound crises of food security and sovereign debt. Several countries have and are approaching the IMF on sovereign debt defaults and many more are expected to do so over the coming years. 

Write to Oshani Perera for more details. 

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