Bodo Ellmers (Eurodad) speaks at the ESM

"Fair and sustainable solutions to debt crises"

 
Debt crisis management has been a key concern for civil society organizations since the 1980s, when developing countries entered into a prolonged crisis that caused the "lost decades" for their development and impoverished their population. Eurodad was founded in 1986 as umbrella organization of European CSOs that advocating fair and sustainable solutions to debt crises. It frequently interacts with the IMF, and was influential in shaping the Heavily Indebted Poor Country debt relief initiatives.

Much conceptional work has been done by the debt justice movement since Eurodad’s founding. In particular on:

• Fair and effective debt workout mechanisms
• Human-rights based debt sustainability frameworks
• Conditionality design that meets democratic standards, protects the poor and is socially just

Bodo Ellmers joined Eurodad in 2009 as Policy and Advocacy Officer. He is now leading Eurodad’s work on debt, financial governance, and responsible financing. This involves research and advocacy, coordinating members and liaising with partners. Before he took over this portfolio, he was in charge of Eurodad’s work on aid and governance for several years, leading, among others, the campaigns on the OECD aid effectiveness process and the UN Development Cooperation Forum.
 
Before Bodo joined Eurodad, he was the Policy Officer of “Deine Stimme gegen Armut”, the German branch of the Global Call to Action against Poverty campaign which is hosted by the national NGO platform VENRO. He also worked as an independent advisor for different civil society organizations such as Concord, VENRO, Global Policy Forum Europe, Eurodad member WEED, and for the UN Millennium Campaign.
 
This is an ESM research internal seminar. If you would like to attend, please write an email to ESMresearch@esm.europa.eu