The organization Jubilee USA issued a statement yesterday that called on the international community to help Haiti and Liberia. The group says that delays in granting debt relief to the two countries have gone on long enough. Jubilee USA asks the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to act quickly, just as they did to help the banks with the credit crisis. Here are some quotes from leaders of Jubilee USA, clipped from their blog Blog The DebtNeil Watkins, National Coordinator of Jubilee USA Network, said: “After four hurricanes in a month and an escalating food crisis it is outrageous that Haiti is being told it must wait six more months for debt relief. This is like Hank Paulson telling Wall Street he will get back to them in the New Year.”“Haiti has been dealing with...
from Blog the Debt by Fran QuigleyIndianapolis StarLast week, I participated in a day-long downtown Indianapolis fast and demonstration asking Senator Bayh to join Senator Lugar in co-sponsoring the Global Poverty Act and Jubilee Act. By committing the U.S. to help reduce extreme poverty and cut the debt burden of struggling countries, these two pieces of legislation would address the obscene fact that 16,000 children die each day simply because they are poor.We took to the streets in the hopes of educating Hoosiers about global poverty. As it turned out, we were the students, too. Even in the age of blogs, Facebook and cell phones, there are still a few lessons best understood by talking with people face-to-face.We learned about messaging. Some people we spoke with about our issues...
from IPS News
By Emad Mekay
WASHINGTON, Jun 26 (IPS) - Anti-debt campaigners say legislation passed by a U.S. Congressional committee this week that would expand debt cancellations to an additional 25 poor nations could prove effective in fighting poverty, stopping environmental degradation and easing the traditional strict economic conditions that accompanied loans and often led to economic chaos.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which supervises U.S. funding for international financial institutions, passed the Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation on Tuesday.
The act, known both as the Jubilee Act and the Casey Bill for Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, paves the way for the approval by the full Senate.
Some 25 low-income countries that are...
from All AfricaThis Day (Lagos)By Senator IroegbuLagosStakeholders are calling for a Fair and Transparent Arbitration (FTA) mechanism in resolving trade disputes between creditor and debtor nations; to promote global partnership and economic growth. This was the highlight of a workshop organised in Abuja by the African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) with support from the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD). Senator Iroegbu, who was at the forum, reportsThe workshop as an official launch of the FTA in Nigeria helped to shed more light on the origin, principal actors, the consequences of Nigeria's foreign debts and the possible way forward.Research work by AFRODAD and findings from groups of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) stated that the...
from The HeraldHerald ReporterZIMBABWE last month cleared US$700 million of its US$726,9 million debt to the African Development Bank (AfDB) despite the current economic challenges, the bank has said, while hailing the Government’s commitment to honouring its international financial obligations.The AfDB also acknowledged that Zimbabwe was under debilitating sanctions, contrary to Western claims that the United States, the European Union and their allies had only placed restrictions on a few individuals and not an economic blockade on the whole country.A statement on the AfDB’s website said: "On April 14, 2008, the country paid US$500 million to the African Development Bank and US$150 million to the African Development Fund. Zimbabwe has, in all, paid US$700 million to the Bank Group...
from the Blog The DebtBy Desmond Tutu | The Baltimore SunLast month, the House of Representatives showed leadership in the fight against global poverty by passing the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation, which would extend lifesaving debt cancellation to more poor nations around the globe.Too many of the world's poor children needlessly starve or go without education because too many impoverished nations - even after the laudable debt relief provided to date - are still funneling scarce resources to multilateral banks instead of paying for needs at home.The world community has found crushing debt to be akin to a modern-day apartheid, and has responded with debt cancellation. Unjust debt leaves developing nations at the behest of the powerful. Shall we let...
from Blog the Debt via Jubilee USAOdious debt and responsible lending: World Bank hosts round table debateThe round table on 14 April 2008 was attended by World Bank staff, African Development Bank staff, IMF staff, government representatives, academics and civil society representatives. The discussion aimed to respond to civil society groups’ demands that the Bank initiate a more meaningful consultation process on the content of its recent discussion paper, “Odious Debt: Some Considerations” published in September 2007. Many CSOs and academics believed that the Bank paper was one-sided and missed many important arguments in support of the doctrines of odious and illegitimate debt. In March, Eurodad published its formal response to the paper.The round table represented an important...
from the Houston ChronicleBy JIM ABRAMS WASHINGTON — The House voted Wednesday to expand by some 25 countries the list of those poorest states eligible for debt relief, allowing them to divert scarce resources from loan repayment to health and education programs.The legislation instructs the administration to begin talks with international financial institutions such as the World Bank on an agreement allowing the new countries to receive debt cancellation.To be eligible the countries, mainly from Africa, must be committed to reducing poverty, holding free elections, practicing good governance, combating corruption and rejecting terrorism and human rights violations.Since 1996, when industrialized countries and the financial institutions came together on the Heavily Indebted Poor...
from One WorldHaider RizviThe U.S. House of Representatives is likely to endorse a legislative proposal this week calling for the cancellation of debts owed by some of the world's poorest countries. The rights advocacy groups that have lobbied hard for the passage of the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation told OneWorld they had no doubts that a vast majority of lawmakers will vote in favor."We have very strong support in the House," said Danielle Pals of the Jubilee USA Network, an umbrella group representing more than 80 religious denominations, development agencies, and human rights organizations from across the United States.The Jubilee USA Network has been trying to convince U.S. lawmakers to pass the proposed legislation on debt cancellation for a long...
Good news! The IMF has finally moved forward on Liberian debt relief. Yesterday's IMF announcement that it has agreed on the necessary financing was a strong endorsement by the international community of Liberia's progress under its new government. It took more than a year of pushing and prodding, but Liberia now can formally begin the debt relief process.
But this is just the beginning. The IMF has not forgiven Liberia's debts, but rather committed the financing necessary so that Liberia can begin the HIPC debt relief process. With any luck, Liberia can move to a HIPC Decision Point (under which it would receive "interim" relief) sometime in the next couple of months, and then to Completion Point (the final step of the debt relief process) perhaps in 2009. This complicated process is...
from Reuters Alert NetEfforts to alleviate poverty in developing countries continue to be hampered by the burden of debts owed to rich nations, Kenyan Nobel laureate, Wangari Maathai, said on Monday, adding that most of the loans had been incurred illegitimately by irresponsible governments."The debt burden continues to make it impossible for many governments to give services to the people," Maathai said at a seminar organised by churches in Africa to campaign for debt relief at the World Social Forum, under way in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.She described the debts as having been "poorly transacted and illegitimate. In many African countries we were being governed by dictatorial, unaccountable governments," Maathai said, urging the churches to continue spearheading the debt relief...
Some years ago, after the Jubilee 2000 debt-cancellation campaign wound down, Bono and other activists founded a group called DATA, based here in Washington, DC. That stands for "Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa." Yesterday, DATA released a report tracking how well G-8 countries are living up to promises they made at last year's summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to help Africa--cutting debt, lowering trade barriers, increasing aid, and ensuring near-universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. (It's actually about the G-7, sans Russia.) As Owen Barder blogged a few days ago, several organizations have released such reports. Here's the lead quote in the DATA press release:
The G8 strode forward down the promised path on debt, but have shuffled with a halting half-pace on aid,...
On April 21 Nigeria made its final buyback payment to its bilateral creditors, completing the wipe-out of more than 80% of its debts. In the end, Nigeria paid $12 billion in cash -- out of the more than $34 billion saved so far from higher oil prices -- in order to buy back $30 billion in debt, an overall 60% discount. (The actual discount is even higher since about half of the repayment was to clear arrears at face value, leaving the true discount at about 24 cents on the dollar for the remaining $24 billion.)
This is truly historic for Nigeria, and for the global effort to help fragile countries get on the right track. But whether or not it makes a lasting difference to Nigerians will depend on what happens next. The actual fiscal effect was never very strenuous for the...