Government Debt and Risk Management Program

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Customized Public Debt Advice for Middle-income Countries
The Government Debt and Risk Management (GDRM) Program provides customized technical advisory to middle-income countries in a programmatic approach. The Program assists countries in developing sustainable debt and risk management frameworks to reduce vulnerability to financial shocks.
Download the GDRM Program brochure for detailed information
Focus on Middle-income Countries
The GDRM Program focuses on middle-income countries (MICs), which are home to 75% of the world’s poor. MIC governments face a unique set of fiscal challenges. They must finance the budget at the lowest possible cost, deepen the domestic market, borrow internationally, and develop the capacity to handle more complex financial instruments, often with limited human and technical resources. The GDRM Program customizes technical assistance to each country’s institutional and technical capacity, and supports them with a programmatic approach: from diagnostic work and developing reform plans to implementation.
Participating Countries
Albania, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, North Macedonia, Morocco, South Africa, Serbia, Peru, Tunisia, Ukraine, Vietnam
Program Areas
Institutional Strengthening focuses on governance, policy coordination, strengthening debt and cash management relations, and capacity and management of internal operations.
Technical Capacity Development covers debt management strategy development and implementation, management of contingent liabilities as well as asset and liability management.
Ukraine: Building the domestic debt market for local currency issuances
Through a partnership with the GDRM Program, Ukraine is moving in the right direction for developing the domestic debt market: increased communication with the investors, move to benchmark securities and the expansion of UAH investors
Looking at the big picture: Sovereign Balance Sheet Risk Management Workshop introduces additional methods to account for both Assets and Liabilities
In Thailand, participants of the GDRM Sovereign Balance Sheet Risk Management workshop become the change agents to make the country more resilient to economic shocks
Colombia: Changes in primary dealer system improve the efficiency of the government securities market
Colombia partners with the World Bank Treasury - Government Debt and Risk Management (GDRM) Program in their quest to modernize the primary dealer system for government securities.
The GDRM Program Phase I Completion Report is published
Supporting our clients develop sophisticated skills and tools to manage public debt in a more strategic, less risky, less costly, and more transparent way.
A classroom where the sound practice meets with the impact: Inaugural Cash Management Workshop
The GDRM Program is strengthening public servants’ capacity to manage debt through a new workshop about cash flow forecasting and cash management.
Albania: Helping the government reduce the cost of borrowing
The World Bank and the Albanian authorities have started an innovative Pilot project for developing a secondary market for government securities.
Azerbaijan: Just-in-time support for the economy
The Azerbaijan ministry of finance collaborated with World Bank Group to help develop a public finance strategy for the medium term, providing policy guidance for sustainable and sound public debt management for all stakeholders.
North Macedonia’s drive for excellence: shaping and maintaining a state of the art Public Debt Department
North Macedonia’s pursuit to build human capital to make the economy more resilient to fiscal shocks is supported with the World Bank Treasury GDRM Program - North Macedonia Public Debt Department partnership.
South Africa on the Right Track - Assessing the Contingent Liabilities from State-Owned Enterprises
The South African debt management office’s partnership with the World Bank Treasury GDRM Program is making significant strides towards assessing and managing government’s contingent liabilities.
Envisioning the Future in Colombia
GDRM program’s support for fine-tuning risk assessment and the management of contingent liabilities for the Colombian government.
Ghana: Catalyzing South–South Dialogue for Managing Contingent Liabilities
As a part of the ambitious fiscal reform plan, Ghana partnered with the GDRM program to improve risk monitoring and assessment related to contingent liabilities.
A hard swap – Supporting Tunisia in better understanding the foreign currency exposure for government debt operations
Tunisian debt management office partnered with the GDRM program to develop an accurate methodology to measure the fair value of currency swaps.
Serbia: After the Crises -Making the Economy More Resilient to Financial Shocks
The Serbian Public Debt Administration partnered with the GDRM program to reduce borrowing costs and exposure to financial risks.
Peru: Sending the Right Market Signals
Peruvian government worked with the GDRM program on improving the debt management strategy to provide more clarity and transparency in the domestic issuance of government securities to investors.
Indonesia: Basing Infrastructure Investment on More Solid Ground
The Indonesian government partnered with the GDRM Program to assess and manage the risks of government guarantees for infrastructure projects.
Vietnam: Building a Framework for Mobilizing Development
Vietnam has partnered with the GDRM program to improve its Public Debt Law to support investment in infrastructure and social programs.
Best-in-Class: Serbia’s Solution for Improved Debt Management
Serbia partnered with the GDRM program to receive technical assistance to build institutional capacity for debt management.
Designing a Better Financial Shock Absorber to Improve Risk Management of South Africa’s Debt Portfolio
South Africa has improved the financial risk management of its public debt portfolio thanks to a tailor-made model designed to analyze the costs and risk factors.
VIDEOS
Ukraine: Making Local Currency Bonds More Attractive for Foreign Investors
Video | September, 2019
Albania: Overcoming the boundaries of a small domestic market
Video | July, 2019
Supporting South Africa: contingent liability management and better communication to stakeholders
Video | June 19 , 2018
How has Serbian Debt Management benefited from the GDRM Program
Video | March 19, 2018
Supporting Peru in deepening domestic markets and revising the debt management strategy, an interview with Carlos Blanco
Video | January 15, 2018
Supporting Colombia - for a sound debt management framework
Video | August 10, 2017
Supporting Ghana in Transitioning from a Low Income to a Middle Income Country: An Interview with Samuel D. Arkhurst
Video | June 5, 2017
Why I Fund the GDRM Program: An Interview with Rosmarie Schlup, Head of the Macroeconomic Support Division, SECO
Video | May 3, 2017
Programmatic
Designed for the medium term, the GDRM Program supports partner countries from upstream, diagnostic work and developing reform plans, to downstream implementation of the plans.
The right expertise
The core team consists of public debt management professionals who have held positions in public debt offices in emerging and developed countries. As seasoned practitioners, speaking the same technical language as their country partners, they provide pragmatic solutions in advanced areas such as issuance in international capital markets, use of derivatives, market-, credit- and operational-risk management, and contingent liabilities management.
Know your partners
Once a country becomes part of the GDRM Program, dedicated debt managers build and manage long-term relationships with partner countries’ management and technical teams. They support their counterparts in all debt management related issues, giving trusted advice, becoming a sounding board, and providing much needed continuity. As they develop a deep understanding of the country’s context, they recommend tailor-made solutions, specific to countries needs and national priorities.
Peer learning
The Program connects countries facing similar issues, providing a platform for an in-depth exchange of ideas and experiences. Peer Group Dialogues provide a cost-effective way to discuss challenges and policy actions on a virtual platform. South-South Collaboration promotes in-depth engagement by multi-country authorities and WBG experts to tackle common reform priorities.
Sustainable outcomes
The GDRM Program is focused on sustainable outcomes. It not only allows time for diagnostic work and plan recommendations, but also time to support the client through implementation, achieving change within the partner country and seeing the reform plans take root.
For any information about the GDRM Program, please contact Rodrigo Cabral, Senior Debt Specialist, World Bank, at rcabral@worldbank.org
2017 GDRM Roundtable - Navigating Debt Markets
Event description. October 16-17, 2017
About GDRM Roundtable:
The World Bank Treasury has successfully concluded its second Government Debt and Risk Management (GDRM) program roundtable. 27 government debt managers representing 18 emerging market countries gathered in the World Bank Treasury building in downtown Washington DC to share experiences and sound practices with fellow debt managers.
The participants discussed a range of topics related to the theme of navigating debt markets, such as currency choice, using cross-currency swaps, innovative financial instruments, international settlement of local currency bonds, and managing relations with non-resident investors. The member countries also had the opportunity to review individual country cases and concluded the roundtable session with discussions about how the second phase of the GDRM program can support member countries in their efforts.
Learn more here.

2016 GDRM Day - What Have We Learned and Where Do We Go from Here?
October 18, 2016
About GDRM Day: During this seminar, the Government Debt & Risk Management Program leaders and participating countries came together to take stock of the achievements, share experiences on reform implementation and learn from reform initiatives in program countries.
Learn more here.