The Jubilee Report: A Blueprint for Tackling the Debt and Development Crises and Creating the Financial Foundations for a Sustainable People-Centered Global Economy

Developing countries are facing dramatic debt and development crises where, to meet obligations to their external creditors, debt-distressed countries are sacrificing investments in education, healthcare, infrastructure and climate resilience.

A reason for the debt situation is that the international community failed to address the flaws in the global financial architecture and to enable and embolden international financial institutions (IFIs) to take stronger measures to prevent and resolve these recurrent debt and development crises.

In response to this urgent reality of debt, development, and climate crises, a group of leading experts in debt, development, and the global financial system came together at the request of Pope Francis to form a Jubilee Commission for the year 2025. A quarter century ago, on the occasion of the last Jubilee, Pope John Paul II advocated for debt relief for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC).

But now, 25 years later, the world confronts another debt crisis and solving it requires deeper and longer-lasting reforms of the global financial architecture. Pope Francis again called for solutions that will require debt relief but asked for more: reforms of the global financial system.

The Commission was convened by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS) and Columbia University’s Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) and chaired by Joseph E. Stiglitz. Three members of the Boston University Global Development Policy Center — Kevin P. Gallagher, Marilou Uy and Marina Zucker-Marques — were appointed to the Commission.

Published June 2025, the Jubilee Report provides both an assessment of the current situation and a blueprint for reforming the international financial architecture to enable countries to achieve sustainable debt levels and scale up investment in healthcare, education, clean energy and climate adaptation. It offers practical and principled recommendations to address the current crises and advances a vision for a reimagined international financial architecture.

The report seeks to contribute to a comprehensive rethinking of the global rules governing finance, taxation, trade, and the sharing of knowledge. At its heart lies a clear and urgent goal: to help build a global economy that serves people, especially the most vulnerable, and truly leaves no one behind.