The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) will host a regional conference on 2 and 3 July in Johannesburg, South Africa. The two-day multi-stakeholder conference emanates from concern about southern African countries’ rising debt levels, which threaten developmental aspirations. Despite numerous commitments to achieve and maintain sustainable levels of public debt, southern African countries are not only reneging on these commitments but are also showing reluctance to rapidly adjust and address rising debt levels. For example, the foreign debt of approximately $170–210 billion for sub-Saharan Africa between 1995-2005 (when G7 debt relief lowered it by 10 per cent) has since risen to nearly $407 billion by 2018 according to estimates from the Jubilee Debt Campaign. There is, therefore, an urgent need to address southern Africa’s debt conundrum.