The Group of 20 should consider improving its debt restructuring framework for poor nations, the former vice president of the African Development Bank said.

The G20 needs to “think about debt restructuring frameworks and how to make them work,” Swazi Tshabalala told a conference in Johannesburg on Wednesday discussing the cost of capital, adding that the bloc needs to commit to firm timelines for implementation.

The G20’s Common Framework, established in 2020 to provide a coordinated approach to restructuring unsustainable debt for low-income countries, has been criticised for being too slow and politically fraught. Some debt reworks, such as those in Zambia and Ghana, have dragged on for years. It also doesn’t address nations saddled by high debt-service costs.

Her comments were made as South Africa is set to host leaders from the G20 at a summit in November as part of its presidency of the bloc. Africa’s largest economy has made easing the heavy debt burden of low-income nations a priority.

Tshabalala also urged multilateral institutions to collaborate to fast-track development on the continent, which needs $1.3-trillion annually by the end of 2030 to meet its sustainable development needs, at a time when the US and European nations are cutting aid.

“There has been very poor coordination on the continent on issues that would drive its development,” she said. “The World Bank is bigger than the African Development Bank in terms of operations on the continent, but if you look at the cooperation and collaboration between the two of them, they are more like competitors than they are collaborators.”