Transparency of the debts owed by governments and the guarantees they have given is an important issue for the international community. The increasing risk of debt distress in many of the world’s poorest countries, coupled with several recent cases of inadequate disclosure that put macroeconomic stability at risk, have highlighted the urgent need to make lending to governments more open, particularly the terms and conditions.

The objective of the paper is to provide readers with an understanding of how existing creditor-driven initiatives to improve the transparency of official bilateral and private-sector lending can be strengthened and effectively put into practice.