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International Responses
G8 Summit
Profile G8 - The G8 comprises seven of the world’s leading industrialised nations, and Russia.
G8 promises in 2005 - The year 2005 saw an unprecedented level of campaigning against poverty. G8 Leaders promised ’full’ cancellation of debts to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and African Development Fund, for those countries that complete the HIPC. The debt being cancelled could be worth $50 billion in total if all 40 potentially eligible countries qualify. Of this, $35 billion is actually being cancelled in 2006.
G8 Africa Personal Representatives’ Joint Progress Report on the Africa Action Plan : Summary Section IV IMPLEMENTING DEBT RELIEF provides an overview of the commitments made at various summits on debt and proposals for implementing debt relief.
G8 leaders agree $50bn aid boost 8 July, 2005, BBC World
The G8 deal: What they said 8 July, 2005
Government defends G8 aid boost 9 July, 2005, BBC World
African head defends G8 agreement 9 July, 2005
Ireland’s Contribution
Ireland and Poor Country Debt Relief. "Ireland has never given development assistance in the form of loans and is not owed any money by the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. It has contributed to international debt relief efforts. In 1998, the Government announced a package of £31.5 million for debt relief in the form of contributions to the multilateral debt relief funds at the World Bank and the IMF and to national debt relief funds in Tanzania and Mozambique". Tom Hanney, Irish Aid.
Other Actors
DFID: The UK is pressing for a range of measures to make the HIPC Initiative, within its current framework, as effective as possible. These measures include a presumption in favour of ‘topping-up’ whenever recommended by IMF and World Bank staff and excluding additional bilateral assistance from the topping-up calculations. This will provide countries with an additional safety cushion against future debt problems.
NGOs & Civil Society Campaigns
Oxfam campaigns for increased aid and debt relief for developing countries as a means for them to help pay for health, education and other key services for poor people.
Jubilee Debt Campaign – Jubilee Debt Campaign is a coalition of national organisations and local and regional groups calling for 100% cancellation of unpayable and unjust poor country debts by fair and transparent means. Member organisations include major aid agencies, churches, other faith groups and trade unions. Jubilee Debt Campaign is a campaigning successor to Jubilee 2000 and was a core member of the MAKE POVERTY HISTORY campaign.
MAKE POVERTY HISTORY campaign was the biggest ever anti-poverty movement came together under the banner of Make Poverty History in 2005.
Jubilee USA Network Jubilee USA Network began as Jubilee 2000/USA in 1997 when a diverse gathering of people and organizations came together in response to the international call for Jubilee debt cancellation. Now over 60 organizations including labor, churches, religious communities and institutions, AIDS activists, trade campaigners and over 9,000 individuals are active members of the Jubilee USA Network.
DATA aims to raise awareness about, and spark response to the crises swamping Africa: unpayable Debts, uncontrolled spread of AIDS, and unfair Trade rules which keep Africans poor. The organization was founded in 2002 by Bono, the lead singer of U2, along with Bobby Shriver and activists from the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt campaign. At the core of DATA’s mission is a view that these issues are not about charity, but about equality and justice.
Jubilee Research: Building on the work of the hugely successful Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign, Jubilee Research continues to provide up-to-date, accurate research, analyses, news and data on international debt. More broadly, it works to establish an international financial system which fosters and supports the achievement of economic and social rights, including the eradication of poverty, in a framework of sustainability, equity and self-reliance.
Trócaire focuses on levels and quality of debt reduction and debt management. They campaign on levels of debt cancellation made available through HIPC II and monitor emerging frameworks for debt management in low-income countries.
AFRODAD, The African Forum and Network on Debt and Development, is a civil society organisation working to secure lasting solutions to Africa’s mounting debt problem which has impacted negatively on the continent’s development process.
Sources of Information:
The case for total debt cancellation in Africa This report argues that debt servicing at any level is incompatible with attaining the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in many African countries. The authors outline a brief history of the debt. (United Nations (UN) Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 2005.
African proposals for debt cancellation- and why debt relief works Report by Jubileee Research in 2002
Giving, forgiving and taking back: why continue to make soft loans to the very poor countries? A. Rogerson (2005) Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
Role of debt relief in reaching MDGs in Africa Lipumba, N. / Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four (G24), 2004
Millstone or Milestone? What rich countries must do in Paris to make aid work for poor people - ActionAid/Oxfam paper - February 2005
Time to bring into line the aid skinflints of Europe - on aid, trade, and debt, the EU’s member states span the full range from heroes to zeroes, says Oxfam GB’s Head of Research, Duncan Green - article for The Guardian newspaper - February 2005
EU Heroes and Villains: Which countries are living up to their promises on aid, trade, and debt? - ActionAid / EURODAD (European Network on Debt and Development) / Oxfam paper - February 2005
Forum on Debt and Development FONDAD is an independent policy research centre and a forum for international discussion established in the Netherlands.
Centre for Global development – independent research on many development issues including debt relief
Do the Deal: The G7 must act now to cancel poor country debts – Oxfam, February 2005
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