A leading Barbadian development economist and sovereign credit expert, Kelvin Dalrymple, has secured a prestigious appointment to a high-profile United Nations council focused on lifting credit ratings for sovereign nations across Africa. With more than two and a half decades of global experience spanning central banking, multilateral financial institutions, and credit analysis, Dalrymple brings unparalleled expertise to this new role.
Dalrymple, who previously served as lead analyst for Sub-Saharan Africa and multilateral development banks at top global credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service, will join the 12-member elite Consilium of Advisors under the United Nations Development Programme. The council operates in service of the Africa Credit Ratings Initiative (ACRI), a targeted program designed to upskill African governments and strengthen their institutional capacity to navigate the complex, often opaque sovereign credit rating process. By helping countries improve their credit profiles, ACRI aims to unlock more favorable borrowing terms and expand access to low-cost international capital for critical development projects.
The announcement of Dalrymple’s appointment came alongside his participation in the annual Barbados Risk & Insurance Management Conference (BRIM), hosted by the Association for Global Business (BIBA) in Bridgetown. Addressing nearly 300 hybrid-format international conference delegates, Dalrymple emphasized the growing urgency of investment-grade credit ratings for developing economies worldwide. As traditional donor and development financing continues to contract across much of the Global South, an increasing number of low- and middle-income nations are turning to open global capital markets to fund infrastructure, social programs, and economic growth.
“Many countries are at a critical juncture where donor funds have dried up, and they now have to turn to capital markets to borrow for development,” Dalrymple explained to attendees, referencing his decades of work across the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. As founder and chief executive officer of The Ratings Advisory Clinic (TRAC), a boutique strategic advisory firm, Dalrymple already supports emerging and frontier economies across multiple core areas: sovereign credit rating strategy, fiscal reform design, debt sustainability planning, and the development of inclusive, effective development policy frameworks.
Dalrymple’s career trajectory spans key leadership roles across public and private global finance. He began his professional journey as an economist at the Central Bank of Barbados, before rising to Director of Research and Planning and later serving as Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Barbados. He went on to hold the position of Chief Economist at the Caribbean Development Bank, and has also served as alternate executive director at the World Bank and senior advisor to the executive director at the International Monetary Fund, where he represented the interests of Canada, Ireland, and a bloc of Caribbean nations. Prior to launching TRAC, he held the role of vice president and senior credit officer at Moody’s London office, cementing his expertise in global sovereign credit analysis.