More than three-and-a-half years, or 1,300 days, after resource-rich Zambia formally declared itself bankrupt it is about to drag itself out of default, leaving some hard lessons for richer nations about how their much-vaunted debt relief plan performed.

Tuesday will see its international bondholders vote through their part of a $13.4 billion debt restructuring and make Zambia the first to complete a full-blown rework under the G20-led ‘Common Framework’ architecture.

Hakainde Hichilema, Zambia’s president, has described it as a historic moment and the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has hailed it as an important sign of multilateral cooperation.

But for many involved in the day-to-day work — and repeated delays — it will be more of a weary cheer than a celebratory fist shake.“It was painful for Zambia — we fully recognise that,” William Roos, the co-chair of both the ‘Paris Club’ of richer Western creditor nations and of Zambia’s Official Creditor Committee that included Zambia’s biggest lender China, said at a Finance for Development Lab debt conference in Paris on Friday.

“So we have to improve. But we delivered” The overall restructuring is estimated to cut around $900 million dollars from Zambia’s debt and spread its future payments over a much longer time frame.

It has been its role as a Common Framework guinea pig, though, that has made it prominent. Launched during Covid-19 in 2020, the Framework was designed to bring all the different lenders to poorer countries under one roof — particularly China whose lending exploded in the decade before the pandemic.