External Debt Burden and Management in the Third World: a Cross-Country Analysis of Nigeria and Indonesia Umar Elems Mahmud Department of Public Administration, Nasarawa State University, Keffi Abstract he post independence experience of Third World T countries in pervasive external debt crises arising from the unsustainable debt burden which ravaged their economies and stunted their development process and debt relief management form the central problem of this study. From the content analysis, it can be argued that poor debt management is one of the major problems that exacerbated the economic or financial crises of the countries. Thus, improving the management of Third World economies, particularly external debt management, remains important. To strengthen the debt management capacity of these countries therefore, it is recommended that Third World countries should carefully and continually conduct a holistic reassessment of the existing institutional framework traversing the structure, organization, function, human resource, laws and strategy for debt sustainability. Keywords: External debt crisis, Debt burden, Debt management, Debt sustainability Corresponding Author: Umar Elems Mahmud Vol. 5, No. 1 March, 2018 International Journal of Innovative Research in Social Sciences and Strategic Management Techniques | IJIRSSSMT ISSN Print: 2465-728X | ISSN Online: 2467-8155 153 | Page http://internationalpolicybrief.org/journals/international-scientific-research-consortium-journals/intl-jrnl-of-innovative-research-in-soc-sci-strategic-mgt-techniques-vol5-no1-march-2018