The World Bank, in collaboration with the SDF, which is the result of a collaboration between the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London and Georgetown University Law Center, organized a virtual legal training program October 19-22, 2020.

The legal training program aims to support the capacity-building for debt managers on sound legal frameworks for a variety of debt obligations. External debt instruments enable countries to access wider sources of funding but requires more comprehensive legal counsel as contracts are more complex. The training program included topics such as: drafting and negotiating key provisions in commercial debt instruments, collateralized debt, guarantees and contingent liabilities and debt restructuring.

The training course was developed by leading experts such as Lee Buchheit (lead speaker), Rosa Lastra, Anna Gelpern, Sean Hagan, Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal and Marcelo Sheppard. All training sessions were conducted in English and were recorded and made available for invited countries and for educational purposes. To facilitate candid discussions, Q&A sessions were not be recorded.

World Bank officials and officials from Debt Management Offices from Benin, Cambodia, Grenada, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Sudan, Togo, Uganda and St Vincent and the Grenadines were in attendance.