This multi-disciplinary publication focuses on the issue of African sovereign debt management and renegotiation/ restructuring, with a particular concentration on the countries that are members of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). It contains a series of essays that were initially presented in several workshops held at the height of the pandemic, in 2020. These essays seek to both understand the debt challenges facing these countries and to offer some policy-oriented suggestions on how they can more effectively address these. They include contributions by global and regional scholars who are seasoned experts and newer researchers and discuss the complexities on debt management and restructuring within the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, this presented an opportunity for junior researchers from the region to contribute to international discussions on a topic in which the views of young Africans are not heard as often or as clearly as they should be, especially given the importance of the topic to Africa and its future. Further, this book is expected to stimulate debate among academics, activists, policy makers and practitioners on how SADC should manage its debt.

This multi-disciplinary publication focuses on the issue of African sovereign debt management and renegotiation/ restructuring, with a particular concentration on the countries that are members of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). It contains a series of essays that were initially presented in several workshops held at the height of the pandemic, in 2020. These essays seek to both understand the debt challenges facing these countries and to offer some policy-oriented suggestions on how they can more effectively address these. They include contributions by global and regional scholars who are seasoned experts and newer researchers and discuss the complexities on debt management and restructuring within the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, this presented an opportunity for junior researchers from the region to contribute to international discussions on a topic in which the views of young Africans are not heard as often or as clearly as they should be, especially given the importance of the topic to Africa and its future. Further, this book is expected to stimulate debate among academics, activists, policy makers and practitioners on how SADC should manage its debt.

"This preliminary report surveys the current state of sovereign debt in emerging market countries, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It warns of the prospect of a lost decade of global growth without urgent, concerted, and sustained policy responses, and it calls upon institutional, private, and multilateral creditors to adapt their lending levels and policies to mitigate the risk of significant, long-term economic loss globally."--Abstract.

A dive into the origins, management, and uses and misuses of sovereign debt through the ages. Public debts have exploded to levels unprecedented in modern history as governments responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis. Their dramatic rise has prompted apocalyptic warnings about the dangers of heavy debtsabout the drag they will place on economic growth and the burden they represent for future generations. In Defense of Public Debt offers a sharp rejoinder to this view, marshaling the entire history of state-issued public debt to demonstrate its usefulness. Authors Barry Eichengreen, Asmaa El-Ganainy, Rui Esteves, and Kris James Mitchener argue that the ability of governments to issue debt has played a critical role in addressing emergenciesfrom wars and pandemics to economic and financial crises, as well as in funding essential public goods and services such as transportation, education, and healthcare. In these ways, the capacity to issue debt has been integral to state building and state survival. Transactions in public debt securities have also contributed to the development of private financial markets and, through this channel, to modern economic growth. None of this is to deny that debt problems, debt crises, and debt defaults occur. But these dramatic events, which attract much attention, are not the entire story. In Defense of Public Debt redresses the balance. The authors develop their arguments historically, recounting two millennia of public debt experience. They deploy a comprehensive database to identify the factors behind rising public debts and the circumstances under which high debts are successfully stabilized and brought down. Finally, they bring the story up to date, describing the role of public debt in managing the Covid-19 pandemic and recession, suggesting a way forward once governmentsnow more heavily indebted than beforefinally emerge from the crisis.

"This report acknowledges the world – and lower-income countries – have so far avoided large pandemic-driven debt defaults in part due to positive spillovers from extraordinary monetary and fiscal support in mature markets. However, the authors caution against complacency, warning that as the overall economic outlook brightens, the likelihood of tightening policy may result in outflows as well as further debt distress and ill effects in emerging and frontier market economies. Moreover, continued worries over the course of the pandemic, predominately vaccination rates and global access, must discourage early complacency or congratulatory posturing."--Abstract.

The last time global sovereign debt reached the level seen today was at the end of the Second World War, and this shaped a generation of economic policymaking. International institutions were transformed, country policies were often draconian and distortive, and many crises ensued. By the early 1970s, when debt fell back to pre-war levels, the world was radically different. It is likely that changes of a similar magnitude -for better and for worse - will play out over coming decades. Sovereign Debt: A Guide for Economists and Practitioners is an attempt to build some structure around the issues of sovereign debt to help guide economists, practitioners and policymakers through this complicated, but not intractable, subject. Sovereign Debt brings together some of the world's leading researchers and specialists in sovereign debt to cover a range of sub-disciplines within this vast topic. It explores debt management with debt sustainability; debt reduction policies with crisis prevention policies; and the history with the conjuncture. It is a foundation text for all those interested in sovereign debt, with a particular focus real world examples and issues.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary to redefine the most significant challenges faced by individual economies and society today. It contributed to the change of contemporary social, technological and economic trends, the effects of which will indeed be the subject of many scientific studies in the coming years. As the pandemic progresses, it promotes reflection and summaries of the consequences of behaviors or omissions in each country. One of them is a synthetic presentation of ten lessons from the pandemic (Gorynia, 2021), which the professor accurately diagnoses in the economic context: 1) the pandemic as a non-economic (sanitary-medical) shock that caused the economic, social and political crisis; 2) the pandemic as a "black swan", an unpredictable threat of high species gravity, but requiring anticipation to minimize its harmful effects in the future; 3) determining the causes of the appearance of the virus determines different preventive actions for future threats; 4) resilience as the foundation of long-term economic efficiency; 5) the set of measures to counteract the harmful effects of a pandemic should not be unified but adapted to the specificity of the facilities it is to affect; 6) the world economy as a system of vessels connected with its positive and negative consequences; 7) the pandemic highlighted the role of coordination of international cooperation; the shortcomings of globalization must be overcome by fairly sharing the positive fruits of international cooperation and resilience aimed at diversifying supplies; 8) economic policy pursued by individual states with a view to preventing the effects of the economic crisis caused by a pandemic cannot be voluntary; 9) the pandemic has sharpened the perception of the shortcomings of contemporary economic, social and political systems and prompts the questioning of certain pillars of the market economy (e.g., homo oeconomicus, individual and global rationality, private and state property, canons of monetary, fiscal, budgetary or industrial policy); 10) the pandemic increases the pressure on systemic and holistic thinking taking into account green economic development, saving energy, water and other resources, using renewable energy sources, avoiding wastage of resources, paying attention to social inequalities in the world, regions and countries, solving poverty problems, and social exclusion. This monograph is partially a response to the in-depth issues covered in these lessons. The authors of individual chapters challenge contemporary topics relating to ​​the COVID-19 pandemic, industry and inter-organizational cooperation, pro-environmental, resilient, and innovative organizations. The monograph consists of three parts. The first part (PART 1) covers an overview of very recent research, considering the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, industries, and business. The article by Anna Ujwara-Gil and Bianka Godlewska-Dzioboń deals with, among others, the issues relating to pandemic impacts on the slowdown in the functioning of the construction, electric automotive, and water industries. Also, it affects the tourist industry, where countries are starting to pay attention to the resource-saving green economy and problems of professional exclusion in the pandemic era. In another article, Maria Czech refers to the influence of public debt on the volatility of spreads during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research is part of the study on the use of sovereign credit default swap spreads to assess a country's credit risk, which may be distorted in a pandemic period. It is undisputed that the COVID-19 pandemic has a global dimension. The crisis resulting from disorders such as in value chains has caused industry to slow down. The Czech luxury fashion industry is no exception. As Radka MacGregor Pelikánová points out, COVID-19 has turned out to be a threat to its development.. Leading Czech luxury fashion companies withdrew to a passive role and felt the negative consequences of the pandemic. As the Author points out, few have engaged in corporate social responsibility and showed ingenuity, which increases their chances of survival in the future. In other studies, Tereza Horáková and Kateřina Maršíková identified factors influencing the environment of effective knowledge exchange in SMEs, which in the era of hybrid work during COVID-19, is particularly important. The second part of the monograph (PART 2) includes two studies on the photovoltaic cell industry in China from the perspective of comparative and intra-industry advantage. As a significant player in the global trade scene and various value chains, China is a fascinating subject of research undertaken by Paweł Brusilo and Bogusława Drelich-Skulska. The results of the first article demonstrate the success of the Chinese industry in terms of growth potential, competitiveness, and development opportunities thanks to effective state support and favorable market forces. As the authors point out, the Chinese solar cell industry has not been studied so far in the context of comparative advantage and the new structural economy. The results show the way for other countries to consider or develop innovative industries, such as renewable energy and solar energy. In the second article, Paweł Brusilo examines the topic of the Belt and Road Initiative in the context of the Chinese photovoltaic cell industry, energy transition policy, identification of modern intra-industry trade patterns and opportunities for this industry, which is characterized by significant state interventionism. The considerations in this article may inspire EU countries to deepen economic and trade cooperation in the export and import of solar cells with China. On the other hand, Joanna Kurowska-Pysz has undertaken the analysis of the cooperation conditions within the innovative processes of representatives of science, business, the legislative, and economic environment cooperating on the capital market. The Author focused on the motivators, barriers, but also the search for an effective form of development of intersectoral cooperation enabling the exchange of knowledge and experience, learning, including the flow of personnel between sectors, joint organization of conferences, seminars, training, and implementation of research projects constituting the basis of innovative processes, or the diagnosis of network relationships. The model proposed by the Author will surely inspire other researchers. The third part of the monograph (PART 3) includes articles referring, inter alia, to the pro-environmental organizational culture of enterprises. Katarzyna Piwowar-Sulej, as an advocate of this valuable orientation today, has shown that organizations are interested in developing pro-ecological behavior and are aware of their impact on the natural environment. The article is in line with the global trend focused on the sustainable, ecological, and green economy enterprises operating in this trend, not only because of COVID-19. Taking action to develop a pro-ecological organizational culture, taking care of the natural environment is not only a moral and ethical requirement but also an obligation for the future generation. This part also includes an article by Piotr Tomszys and Bartosz Grucza, who present an inspiring model of organizational resilience and an attempt to operationalize it. The organizational resilience model proposed by the Authors is in line with the growing interest in the analyzes and measurement of the enterprises' resilience. The conceptualization and measurement of economic resilience can inspire other researchers to further research in this area. The COVID-19 pandemic, as an unpredictable and destructive shock, might be a unique opportunity to verify the developed model, as the authors point out. The last article deals with the issue of innovative management and its measurement based on a proprietary tool developed by Magdalena Gorzelany-Dziadkowiec. The considerations undertaken by the Author are a reliable starting point for further research concerning the impact of COVID-19 on the organization's functioning, the development of innovative management, changes in work processes, and interpersonal relations in the era of increasingly dominant digital technology and skills to use it. The editors profoundly thank all the Authors for their valuable contribution to this monograph and cooperation in its co-creation. We address our grateful thanks to all the Reviewers for their insightful evaluation and high standards of their work. These special thanks go to (in alphabetical order) Barbara Błaszczyk Institute of Economics, Polish Academy of Sciences; Justyna Bugaj, Jagiellonian University; Anna Fornalczyk, COMPER Fornalczyk and Wspólnicy; Marta Gancarczyk, Jagiellonian University; Anna Maria Lis, Gdańsk University of Technology; Andrzej Lis, Nicolaus Copernicus University; Mieczysław Morawski, Warsaw University of Technology; Paweł Pisany, Institute of Economics, Polish Academy of Sciences; Natalia R. Potoczek, Institute of Economics, Polish Academy of Sciences. We also thank Paweł Japoł for his thorough proofreading of this monograph.

International Debt Statistics (IDS), a long-standing annual publication of the World Bank, features external debt statistics and analysis for the 120 low- and middle-income countries that report to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System. IDS 2021 includes (1) an overview analyzing global trends in debt stocks of and debt flows to low- and middle-income countries within the framework of aggregate capital flows (debt and equity); (2) a feature story on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Debt Service Suspension Initiative in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; (3) tables and charts detailing debtor and creditor composition of debt stock and flows, terms of new commitments, and maturity structure of future debt service payments and debt burdens, measured in relation to gross national income and export earnings for each country; (4) one-page summaries per country, plus global, regional, and income group aggregates showing debt stocks and flows, relevant debt indicators, and metadata for six years (2009 and 2015†“19); and (5) a user guide describing the tables and content, definitions and rationale for the country and income groupings used in the report, data notes, and information about additional resources and comprehensive data sets available to users online. Unique in its coverage of the important trends and issues fundamental to the financing of low- and middle-income countries, IDS 2021 is an indispensable resource for governments, economists, investors, financial consultants, academics, bankers, and the entire development community. For more information on IDS 2021 and related products, please visit the World Bank’s Data Catalog at https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/dataset/international-debt-statistics.