Recent Victories
The American Friends Service Committee’s Life Over Debt Campaign Applauds Success of Global Debt Cancellation Movements
After years of public education, protest and advocacy the international debt cancellation movement has achieved a major success. On June 11th, the finance ministers of the world’s wealthiest nations (G-8) announced 100% debt cancellation for fourteen nations in Africa and four in Latin American to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and African development Bank.
This outcome is a meaningful success for the 2000 people who joined AFSC in our letter campaign that urged U.S. Treasury Secretary Snow to reach a 100% debt cancellation deal for impoverished countries.
Yet while this victory establishes a crucial precedent for providing 100% debt cancellation for impoverished nations, 33 additional Sub-Sahara African countries will continue to pay over $11.5 billion in often odious and illegitimate debt service at the expense of their people. Moreover, only countries who graduate from the IMF and World Bank’s Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) program are eligible for future cancellation. Not only are the conditions imposed on these countries harmful, but the process is too slow—taking nine years for just 18 countries to graduate. In the end, many countries will never attain the standards required to enjoy debt cancellation, not to mention the countries in Africa excluded from the HIPC program all together.
Now that the G-8 debt cancellation deal is done, AFSC will utilize our appoint with U.S. Treasury to deliver the 2,000 letters on June 23rd to express graditude for the prgress made, but also advocate for 100% debt cancellation for the Sub-Shara African countries left out of the deal.
Looking Forward
AFSC is committed to working towards the following:
- Expand debt cancellation to more countries
- Remove HIPC as the eligibility criteria
- Remove any form of conditionality
AFSC will do this in the following ways:
- Working with U.S. Congress to pass the Jubilee Act now co-sponsored by 73 members, which calls for 50 countries to be included in debt cancellation deals without harmful conditions.
- Continue to put pressure on the U.S. Department of Treasury, the IMF and the World Bank to establish a new yardstick for debt cancellation eligibility.
- Work with Civil Society groups in the Global South and in G-8 countries to campaign to remove conditionalities.
What you can do:
- Send a message to your Congressional representatives and tell them that you stand with Bishop Tutu in his call for 100% debt cancellation without harmful conditions. Also ask them to co-sponsor the JUBILEE Act, a bill calling for debt cancellation for low-income countries.
- Subscribe to the National Africa Network E-Newsletter
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