[stop-imf] Jubileee: Gordon Brown and Jubilee’s respon se; Doctors for Drop the Debt

[robert weissman]

From: Neil Watkins <neil@jubileeusa.org>

Greetings, Jubilee USA! Lot of exciting news and updates from the
movement for debt cancellation, including information and analysis on a
new proposal for 100% debt cancellation from UK Treasury Chief Gordon
Brown, another reason to join us on October 1st outside the G-7 Finance
Ministers meeting, some recent press, and the text of a letter sent by
about 150 health professionals to G-7 Finance Ministers about the need
for debt cancellation!

Below:
1)	Reason #5 to Join us on October 1 in Washington, DC!
2)	New York Times and The Guardian on Gordon Brown’s New Debt Proposal
3)	Jubilee USA Statement on Brown’s Proposal and the Need for the G-7 to
Make a Deal on Debt
4)	Letter from Health Professionals to the G-7
5)	Recent media coverage with Jubilee USA – Voice of America, Inter
Press Service

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1) Reason #5 you should come out for debt cancellation on October 1st in
front of the G-7 Finance Ministers meeting:

The Group of 7 most powerful economies, the G-7, is the primary decision
maker on the matter of debt cancellation.  In the IMF and World Bank,
countries are given a vote proportionate to how much they contribute.
The US and the rest of the G-7 countries control 42.97% of the vote in
the World Bank and 45.71% of the vote in the IMF.  The US alone has
16.41% of the vote in the World Bank and 17.16% of the vote in the IMF.
  Japan has the next highest at 7.87% and 6.27% respectively.  To make
changes to either institutions mandate or to make decisions like 100%
debt cancellation a “super majority of 85% is required.  This means that
the G-7 countries must all agree on changes and that the US effectively
has veto power.  Compared all of the above to sub-Saharan African
countries voting power in both the World Bank and IMF which is less than
5% and it is easy to see the injustice inherent in the institutions.  By
taking out message to the G-7 we take it to the decision makers.  The
G-7 must hear the demand of millions world wide of 100% debt
cancellation.  We can take it to them, Friday October 1st at Noon,
location will be announced shortly (the G-7 is so secretive when it
comes to these things). Keep posted and print out a flyer to share at
www.jubileeusa.org!

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2) New York Times and The Guardian on Gordon Brown’s New Debt Proposal

New York Times
September 26, 2004
Britain Offering to Pay Off 10% of Third World Debt
By ALAN COWELL


LONDON, Sept. 25 - Britain is planning a new effort to help poor
countries reduce their huge debts by offering to pay off 10 percent of
the total owed to international agencies and challenging other nations
to follow suit, said Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the Exchequer.

In an address on Sunday to an advocacy group called the Trade Justice
Movement, Mr. Brown also plans to repeat an earlier proposal that the
International Monetary Fund should revalue its vast gold reserves,
currently priced at a tenth of their market value, and use the proceeds
to cancel some third world debt, according to a text of his remarks
published Saturday in The Guardian and later confirmed by the Treasury.

The issue is rising once more on the international agenda
because a previous mechanism for debt relief, set up in 1996 by the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, is to be renewed in
December for two years. James D. Wolfensohn, the president of the World
Bank, said Friday in Washington that the White House had devised a plan
to cancel some third world debt, Reuters reported. Senator John Kerry,
the Democratic presidential challenger, has also promised to lead
efforts to cancel the debts of impoverished countries if he is elected.

Mr. Brown's proposal is significant because it comes just days before
the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund in Washington. The finance ministers of the Group of 7 major
industrial nations, including Mr. Brown, are also to meet just before
those gatherings.

"What we hope is that this will break the logjam that has been there for
some time," said Brendan Cox, a spokesman for Oxfam, a nonprofit group
that has urged accelerated moves to cancel third world debt. "If others
follow suit it will be a massive turning point in efforts to end the
burden of international debt."

Mr. Brown plans to tell the meeting of anti-debt campaigners on Sunday
that Britain will set aside the equivalent of $180 million a year to pay
off 10 percent of the money owed by 32 countries to international
lenders, notably the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Poor
nations contend that they often must choose between paying these debts
and meeting urgent needs of their people, or making expenditures that
would strengthen their economies.

"Because the poor cannot wait, we intend to lead by example by paying
our share of their payments to the World Bank and the African
Development Bank," Mr. Brown is planning to say. "We do this alone
today, but we urge you to use your moral authority to urge other
countries to follow suit so that poor countries can look forward to a
future free from the shackles of debt."

Mr. Brown will also argue that the debt owed to the International
Monetary Fund could be cut by a revaluation of the fund's gold stocks,
currently worth $8.5 billion when valued at $40 per ounce. The market
price for gold is now over $400 an ounce.

"Because we cannot bury the hopes of half of humanity in the lifeless
vaults of gold, the cancellation of debt owed to the I.M.F. should be
paid for by the better use of I.M.F. gold," Mr. Brown plans to say. His
speech will be given as part of the preparations for the annual
conference of the governing Labor Party in Brighton, in southern England.
Hilary Benn, the minister responsible for British overseas aid, said the
British move "throws down a challenge to the rest of the world." Some
estimates put the total debt owed by the poorest countries at around
$200 billion.

Romilly Greenhill, a spokeswoman for the Action Aid debt relief advocacy
group, said the sum of $180 million mentioned by Mr. Brown was
apparently part of Britain's annual budget for development, currently
totaling about $7 billion. "It is not strictly new money in the sense
that it has already been included in the aid budget," she said.

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Brown and Bush set for clash over debt relief

Conflicting strategies to help the poorest could split G7 summit

Nick Mathiason and Heather Stewart
Sunday September 26, 2004
The Observer

George Bush and Gordon Brown are heading for a dramatic showdown at the
G7 summit in Washington this week over plans to write off developing
countries' debt.

The American president, desperate for policies to emphasise his 'caring
conservative' credentials before November's presidential election, is
advancing a plan to cancel billions of dollars in debt owed by some of
the world's poorest countries.

The plan, disclosed by members of aid groups, would increase previous
debt relief programmes for at least 27 poor nations such as Uganda,
Bolivia, and Ethiopia. The US Treasury Department, which is putting the
plan forward, says the current approach has been too slow and piecemeal
to free developing countries from the burden of repaying money borrowed
from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other global lenders.

The US Treasury is also proposing that, for very poor countries, all
future IMF and World Bank assistance come in the form of grants rather
than loans.

But Brown is strongly against the plans because it would mean debt
cancellation paid out of World Bank and IMF funds. This would mean the
World Bank, in particular, would have less scope for poverty alleviation.

Brown's plan, to be outlined tonight at a Trade Justice
Movement fringe meeting in Brighton tonight, is for all G7 countries to
put up extra funds directly for debt cancellation. He is prepared for
the UK to contribute an extra £100 million every year.

A UK Treasury spokesman was worried that Bush's proposals 'would rob
Peter to pay Paul'. He added: 'We want to see [Brown's plan] happen.
What we need to be clear about is that it needs to be fully financed.'

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3) Jubilee USA Statement

JUBILEE USA NETWORK
For Immediate Release - September 27, 2004

Contact: Neil Watkins, 202-783-0129/ 202-421-1023

G7 - Do Not Delay: The World Needs 100% Debt Cancellation Now

Jubilee USA Network Responds to UK Chancellor Gordon Brown's Comments on
Debt Cancellation

WASHINGTON - As the G7 Finance Ministers meeting to be held in
Washington on October 1st nears, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon
Brown yesterday committed the UK to pay 10% of the cost of canceling
third world debt and encouraged the IMF's share to be financed by gold
sales.

Jubilee USA Network today released the following statement on Brown's
recent remarks on poor country debt cancellation:

"Jubilee USA Network welcomes the recent debate within the G7 on
impoverished country debt cancellation. Jubilee USA Network, its 70
US-based member organizations, and partners in the global Jubilee
movement have been campaigning for the better part of the last decade
for freedom from debt. Jubilee USA Network calls for 100% multilateral
debt cancellation for all impoverished nations, without harmful economic
conditions, and paid for using the resources of the IMF and World Bank.

"As G7 Finance Ministers prepare to gather in Washington on Friday,
October 1, we issue an urgent call to G7 nations to work in the spirit
of multilateral cooperation and compromise to achieve a deal on 100%
debt cancellation for impoverished nations at this meeting, or soon
thereafter.

"Each one of the G7 nations deserves credit for supporting debt
cancellation initiatives in the past 5 years. Germany hosted the G7
summit in 1999, which led to bilateral debt cancellation from the G7 and
additional debt relief through HIPC Initiative. France reportedly urged
the United States government in June to embrace full debt cancellation
for poor nations if it wanted support for Iraq debt cancellation. The
UK's Gordon Brown has been a leader in the recent work for full debt
cancellation and issued bold call to use the IMF's gold to cancel the
debt at a meeting this summer at the Vatican. The U.S. Treasury
department has spent the past several months working towards full
multilateral debt cancellation now widely reported by the media. Canada
has been a longtime supporter of debt cancellation. Italy and Japan
should also be saluted for their efforts on these and related issues
over the years.

"In the coming week and beyond, G7 nations must work together to achieve
a deal for 100% debt cancellation. Differences among the G7 have arisen
on the question of how debt cancellation should be financed. Jubilee USA
Network recognizes that the World Bank and IMF, very rich institutions,
can easily afford to cancel poor country debt from their own resources.
In particular, we urge the G7 to direct the IMF to sell some of its vast
gold reserves in order to finance debt cancellation. This approach would
not affect the IMF's ability to lend nor would it cost taxpayers in rich
countries additional money. Unlike other possible resources within the
institutions, the gold provides additional resources for impoverished
nations while requiring the IMF to finance its fair share of debt
cancellation. Recent studies show that there is enough IMF gold to
finance both the IMF and World Bank share of the debt cancellation.

"The choice to use IMF gold does not preclude the dedication of
additional resources towards comprehensive development financing by G7
nations in the next year and beyond. It will be important, once debt is
cancelled, to fully fund the fight against AIDS and the Millennium
Development Goals. 100% debt cancellation will ensure that future
resources dedicated to impoverished country development will be able to
be effective and ensure that these additional resources are not simply
siphoned back to creditors in the form of debt service.

"UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown stated Sunday that the UK
government would put up 10% of the cost of debt cancellation and he
called on other governments to appropriate resources from their national
treasuries to finance debt cancellation. We laud Brown for his
commitment to 100% debt cancellation, but his call to finance debt
cancellation through G7 government appropriations threatens to scuttle a
deal on debt. Brown's commitment, though generous, is unnecessary
considering the international financial institutions' vast resources.

"Several G7 nations have been clear that they cannot support 100%
cancellation if they must contribute more than they already do to the
IMF and World Bank. We call on the Chancellor Brown, our own government,
and all other G7 nations to negotiate in the coming week and beyond in
order to reach points of compromise to accomplish 100% cancellation of
impoverished nation debt. Financing through gold could be the best way
to reach a deal in the immediate term as nations go through the longer
process of identifying how to increase overall aid appropriations to
meet development challenges.

"All G7 nations embrace the principle of debt cancellation and the need
for funds to fight poverty disease that debt cancellation frees up. No
nation denies the critical development challenges that poor nations face
and the need to fight the global AIDS pandemic. No nation denies the
urgent need to meet human development goals. No nation denies that debt
relief has been effective and has been used to fight poverty. We cannot
delay; lives are in the balance.

"The consequences of a long delay on 100% debt cancellation for
impoverished nations are grave. In 1 month, 240,000 people die of AIDS
and almost 1 million children will die of preventable diseases, in 2
months, almost a half million people will die of AIDS and 2 million
children will loose their lives to preventable diseases. We know that
interim debt relief has more than doubled poverty reduction expenditures
in eligible countries. Do not delay. G7, cancel 100% of the debt now."

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4) Letter from Health Professionals to the G-7

Physicians for Human Rights – Health Action AIDS


							September 22, 2004

Dear G-7 Presidents and Prime Ministers:

We write to you as health professionals from diverse countries in
Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Europe,
and Australia who strongly support debt cancellation for poor countries.
  Debt cancellation is a prescription urgently needed to help heal
seriously ailing health systems – some of which cannot even provide
minimal care – in many of the countries in which we live and work.

Debt cancellation would free large sums of money, funds that should be
used to build stronger and more equitable health systems, which are
desperately needed if the fight against AIDS and other killer diseases
is ever to be won.  Right now we are losing that fight.  AIDS alone
kills about 3 million people per year, as another 5 million people
becoming infected with HIV annually.  At the end of June 2004, fewer
than 10% of people in developing countries in urgent need of AIDS
treatment were receiving it.  In light of the health crises that many of
our countries face, debt cancellation is necessary on human rights and
humanitarian grounds.  We therefore urge you to endorse 100%
multilateral debt cancellation for impoverished countries when the issue
is discussed at the meeting of G-7 finance ministers this October 1.

We know that poor countries need this debt relief urgently.  African
countries alone are collectively spending about $15 billion per year
servicing their debts to wealthy creditors, including multilateral
institutions.  The fifteen focus countries of the U.S. President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief spent $10.3 billion servicing their debts
in 2001; this is more than the $9 billion these countries are scheduled
to receive over the Emergency Plan’s entire five years.  The World Bank,
IMF, and regional development banks are typically the largest creditors
of the most impoverished nations.

Relief from debt could be instrumental in enabling countries to meet
AIDS treatment targets, as well as other health goals.  Your governments
all support the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) 3 by 5 initiative,
which aims to get 3 million people in developing and middle-income
countries on AIDS treatment by the end of 2005.  And as so many of us
know through our own experiences, many countries, particularly in
Africa, have nowhere near the necessary numbers of health personnel.
For example, WHO and the World Bank have reported that Tanzania and
Chad, both countries that would benefit greatly from debt cancellation,
require their health workforces to triple and quadruple in size,
respectively, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.



The connection between suffering health systems and the debt payments
that limit funds available to them is palpable.  To a significant
degree, the severe shortage of health workers in Africa is a symptom of
acute underinvestment in health systems, many of which suffer from too
few staff, too few supplies, and too few drugs.  This underinvestment is
a central cause of the migration of health professionals to wealthy
nations, where health systems are stronger and pay is better.  Creating
the conditions that will enable health professionals to remain in their
home countries and allow them to provide the best care possible for
their patients will cost money.  Health care workers will continue to
leave if they are unable to meet the charge of our professions: serving
our patients.  Our colleagues will continue to emigrate so long as they
do not have medicines for their patients, or functioning equipment, or
proper supervision.  And they will continue to leave so long as they
cannot support their families or be confident of their own safety.  They
need fair salaries, equipment to protect themselves from occupational
infections of HIV and other diseases, and psychosocial support to help
cope with the constant death and stressors they face.

Full multilateral debt cancellation for impoverished nations could go a
long way towards meeting people’s right to the highest attainable
standard of health.  Indeed, debt relief that countries have received
under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative has already
begun to do so.  In Malawi, savings from debt relief have paid for extra
staff and support in primary health centers, nurse training, and
improving the supply of essential drugs in health facilities.  In
Mozambique, debt relief funds helped increase the number of children
receiving immunizations for tetanus, whooping cough, and diphtheria.
Debt relief savings have also helped fund primary health care in Uganda,
including salaries of health care workers, while countries including
Uganda and Cameroon have used debt relief savings to help finance
HIV/AIDS programs.

Debt cancellation is an excellent investment not only in people’s
health, but also in countries’ economic well-being.  Increased spending
by impoverished countries in health, education, and other fields that
promote human development, which will result from debt cancellation,
goes hand-in-hand with economic growth.  As WHO’s Commission on
Macroeconomics and Health has highlighted, investments in health will
increase worker productivity, creating economic gains that would far
exceed the initial cost to creditors of debt relief.  Debt cancellation
will help put countries that are economically marginalized and heavily
dependent on foreign aid onto paths towards economic autonomy and
integration in the world economy.  By contrast, without debt
cancellation and other investments to reverse the spread of and treat
people with HIV/AIDS, decreased worker productivity will make countries
increasingly dependent on foreign assistance and unable to participate
in the global economy.

We therefore urge you to support 100% multilateral debt cancellation for
impoverished countries, including HIPC countries and as well as non-HIPC
countries that are in need of this relief.  We hope that your finance
ministers will announce your governments’ support for such an initiative
at their October 1 meeting.  This debt cancellation should not come at
the expense of foreign development assistance.  And we encourage you to
work with countries whose debts are cancelled to ensure that their
savings from debt payments are used on poverty reduction and human
development.  Countries can establish mechanisms to ensure that savings
from debt services payments are used to reduce poverty and to promote
human development.  Uganda has established a Poverty Action Fund into
which savings from debt relief are channeled, and which includes a
series of procedures to ensure that the debt relief savings are well
spent.  Other countries, including Tanzania and Malawi, have established
similar mechanisms.

We also encourage you to work towards a permanent solution to the debt
of impoverished countries – including for countries that do not receive
100% multilateral debt cancellation and for any new debt assumed by
those countries whose debts are cancelled – by creating a new
understanding of what level of debt countries are expected to repay.  In
particular, we urge you to announce that from this time forward,
countries will be neither obliged nor expected to make debt payments
that would compromise their ability to meet their people’s basic needs
or otherwise fulfill their people’s human rights.

We are health professionals.  Our job is to heal.  So it pains us to see
debt payments siphoning away funds that could go far towards enabling
our colleagues and ourselves do our jobs and meet the needs of the
patients we serve.  We fervently hope that you will help enable us to be
the healers that we were trained to be.

Signed – Over 150 Health Professionals
see www.phrusa.org for more info.

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5)	Recent media coverage with Jubilee USA – Voice of America, Inter
Press Service

Renewed Call For 100 Percent Debt Cancellation For Poor Countries
Joe De Capua
Washington
24 Sep 2004, 16:29 UTC

G-7 finance ministers are being called on to endorse total debt
cancellation for the world’s poorest nations. The ministers are
scheduled to meet in Washington, DC, October 1st. Supporters of the
proposal say if poor nations spend less money on debt relief they can
spend more fighting HIV/AIDS and other diseases. The supporters
presented their case in an international teleconference.
In 1996, The World Bank and the IMF began HIPC (HIP-ik), the Highly
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. According to officials the aim was
to “reduce debts to sustainable levels for poor countries that pursue
economic and social policy reforms.”
Supporters of HIPC say it has greatly reduced the debt burden of poor
countries. However, critics say it has not gone far enough.
When G-7 finance ministers meet in Washington, they are expected to
consider a US proposal for 100 percent debt cancellation for over thirty
countries. It has the support of such groups as the Jubilee USA Network.
Marie Clarke is the National Coordinator.
She says, "When a country has more access to its own resources through
debt relief, they use this money extremely well. And the latest HIPC
report from the IMF and World Bank shows that on average eligible
countries have at least doubled poverty reduction expenditures since
1999. However, the HIPC program’s extensive conditions have been
counterproductive for impoverished country development. And the debt
relief has been too slow for too few countries and with too many
burdensome obstacles."
Another long time proponent of debt cancellation is Jeffrey Sachs,
special advisor to the United Nations and director of the Columbia
University Earth Institute. He says, “Money that should be invested in
health care has been funneled off to repay debts.”
"These are countries that are broke. Charging them debt is killing their
people. Asking them to repay the debt so that the World Bank can lend
them the same money or lend some other impoverished country their money
makes no sense. The only thing that makes sense is the net transfer of
resources from rich to poor countries, not the transfer of resources
from impoverished countries to other impoverished countries," he says.
One of the countries now in the HIPC program is Zambia. Its president,
Levy Mwanawasa, told the UN General Assembly that despite HIPC, debt
continues to consume increasing amounts of national incomes. He says
HIPC has problems that prevent countries from taking full advantage of it.
Agreeing with the Zambian leader is Father Peter Henriot director of the
Jesuit Center for Theological Reflection. Fr. Henriot, who’s spent 15
years in Zambia, says the country’s debt stands at six and a half
billion US dollars. He says there are three basic problems with HIPC.
"First of all, the HIPC approach is based upon a sustainable debt being
defined not in terms of how much money does the country need to service
its people, but how much must be gathered through export earnings to
service debt. The second thing is that HIPC comes with a lot of
conditionalities, liberalization that simply ignores, so often ignores,
the social consequences. And thirdly, even with HIPC resources, even
with HIPC reducing some of the debt stock, Zambia will still be paying
some 120 to 150 million US dollars each year on debt servicing," he says.
Fr. Henriot says debt cancellation would help in the fight against
HIV/AIDS in Zambia, where 15 to 20 percent of the population is infected.
Sharonann Lynch, of the group Health Gap, says debt cancellation would
save lives.
She says, "We know that people are dying needlessly on the order of 8200
every day due to a lack of access to AIDS treatment. We know that six
million people currently are in immediate need of clinical therapy with
anti-retroviral drugs. We know that the current program to fight AIDS
and provide ARV therapy are not good enough or big enough. So, what we
are saying is that our only hope now is to free up the money that is now
used for debt servicing for treatment scale-ups."
Despite the US position, there’s no guarantee all the other G-7 nations,
which include Britain, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy, would
go along with it. A number have voiced reservations.
  September 27, 2004 Brown to cancel UK's share of poor countries'
debtsBy Gary Duncan, Economics Editor


GORDON BROWN last night unveiled a £100 million a year initiative for
Britain to write off another large slice of the debts owed by the
world’s poorest nations. The Chancellor used the move, effectively
cancelling the UK’s share of debts owed by more than 30 poor countries
to the World Bank and African Development Bank, to throw down a gauntlet
to other rich Western nations to follow Britain’s lead.

Under Mr Brown’s pledge, the UK will now earmark £100 million a year
from its aid budget to meet the interest bill and repayments of
principal on Britain’s 10 per cent share of the debts owed by the poor
states to the two multilateral institutions. Fourteen countries that
have already qualified for assistance under the international Highly
Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative will benefit from the
proposal, with a further 18 nations not in the scheme, including
Cambodia and Tonga, also entitled to help. But the Chancellor used a
speech last night to a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in
Brighton to emphasise his belief that more action is needed to provide a
lasting solution to the question of debt relief. Mr Brown is expected to
use this week’s annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and
World Bank in Washington to demand further measures and to ask other
leading economies to throw their weight behind enhanced debt-relief
efforts. The Chancellor has repeatedly used his role as chairman of the
IMF’s policymaking International Monetary and Financial Committee to
press the issue. But he faces a clash this week with the Bush
Administration, which is pushing for a scheme that would use the
resources of the Fund and the World Bank to write off poor countries’
debt. Mr Brown opposes this approach, arguing that funds for debt relief
should not come from the two institutions’ budgets, undercutting their
efforts at tackling global poverty, but from new resources from the
richest economies, including America. The Chancellor’s proposals
yesterday did not cover multilateral debts owed by poor countries to the
IMF. But he will this week throw his weight behind far-reaching
proposals to use a revaluation of the IMF’s gold reserves to write off
those debts. Under arrangements that date from 1971, most of the IMF’s
103.4 million ounces of gold is valued at about $40 an ounce — a total
of $8.5 billion (£4.7 billion). But at today’s price of $400 an ounce,
the true value of the stock is closer to $40 billion. Under a complex,
off-market transaction, revaluing the IMF gold could release $32 billion
for debt relief and cancellation. Mr Brown is also to back World Bank
and IMF staff in pushing this week for an extension to the HIPC
initiative, which is due to expire in December under a sunset clause.
Twenty-seven countries have so far benefited from debt relief under
HIPC, but campaigners say that more time and funds are needed if the
promises made under the scheme are to be fulfilled. Debt campaigners
yesterday welcomed the Chancellor’s latest moves. Oliver Buston of Data,
the campaign group founded by Bono, the U2 rock star, said: “The
announcement is well timed and could be the beginning of the end of the
debt crisis for the poorest nations if other rich countries agree their
share.” Adrian Lovett, of Oxfam, said the Chancellor’s announcement was
“a bold and welcome move”. “If other countries can meet the challenge,
the international community will be taking real steps towards changing
millions of lives for the better,” he said.U.K.'s Brown to Provide $180
Mln for Debt Relief (Update1) Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Chancellor of
the Exchequer Gordon Brown pledged to spend 100 million pounds ($180
million) a year relieving the debts of 30 of the world's poorest
nations, challenging the U.S. to chip in as well. Speaking on the
sidelines of the ruling Labour Party's annual conference in Brighton,
England, Brown said Britain will pay its share of interest due on debts
owed by nations including Bolivia, Ethiopia and Mali to the World Bank
and African Development Bank. ``We do this alone today, but I urge other
countries to follow,'' Brown said in a statement released by the
Department for International Development. ``We will pay our share of the
multilateral debt repayments.'' Brown's plan puts Britain in conflict
with the U.S. over how to fund debt relief programs that already have
forgiven $70 billion in loans owed by 27 of the world's poorest
countries. Finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations
will discuss the matter in Washington later this week. The U.S. has
proposed that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund pay for
debt relief. Brown wants rich industrial nations to put up the cash,
leaving the World Bank funds free for other poverty alleviation
programs. Britain will help countries, including Nicaragua and Vietnam,
meet a portion of their debt-service payments, the U.K. Department for
International Development said in an e-mailed statement. The proposed
relief will run until 2015, said a department spokesman. Spending Plan
The funds will come from an increase the department's budget announced
in July, the spokesman said. Britain's foreign aid budget is forecast to
rise to 6.5 billion pounds a year, or 0.47 percent of gross domestic
product, by the year ending April 2008. By value, that's more than
double the amount spent when Labour took office in 1997. Brown is due to
outline the plan at a meeting organized by the Trade Justice Movement
this evening in Brighton. He will speak to the party's conference
tomorrow. A report by lobbying groups the World Development Movement and
the Jubilee Debt Campaign earlier this year said it would cost 171
million pounds a year over 10 years to cancel the U.K.'s share of the
debt owed by the poorest countries to the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund. If Brown's plan is adopted by other countries, the result
would be ``dramatic,'' U.K. charity Oxfam said in an e-mailed statement.
The measure could result in ``breaking the log-jam on debt,'' Oxfam
campaigns director Adrian Lovett said. reporter on this story:Edward
Evans  at eevans3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for
this story:Malcolm Shearmur at
mshearmur@bloomberg.netDEVELOPMENT:Activists Urge US to Lobby Hard for
Debt ForgivenessEmad Mekay WASHINGTON, Sep 24 (IPS) - Development groups
and economists are stepping up the pressure on rich nations to act on a
proposal backed by the United States to cancel the debts of the world's
poorest poor nations. ”The amount of money being spent by poor countries
on debt repayment is crushing when compared to the size of the health
budget in these countries,” said Jeffrey Sachs, a special advisor to the
United Nations and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia
University. ”Full debt cancellation is the only thing that makes sense
for these countries.” Sachs was among a panel of activists and
economists who held a press conference Thursday to repeat demands for
100 percent cancellation of the debt that is crippling many poor
nations' economies. The call comes a week before a meeting for the
finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised
nations. The G7 ministers, meeting in Washington next week, are expected
to address proposals for 100 percent multilateral debt cancellation for
some 33 poor countries. Debt is also likely to feature very highly on
the agenda of this year's World Bank and International Monetary Fund
(IMF) Annual Meetings to be held Oct. 1-3. Sachs said that poor nations
were being forced to divert billions of dollars to rich nations when
pressing needs in health and education were going unmet under economic
policies mostly promoted by the Western-dominated institutions, the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ”What's happening
now is that these countries are being forced to repay their debt and
that money is being used to make loans back to poor countries. The World
Bank and the IMF need to rip up the debt and insist that the savings go
towards programmes that service their people rather than service the
debt.” An activist from Zambia said the debt is swallowing huge
resources from the African nation. ”The country is now deep in debt,”
said Father Peter Henriot, director of the Jesuit Center for Theological
Reflection, a major campaigner for the Zambian debt cancellation
movement. ”That debt has bled us for years, funneling many of our
resources. The debt level stands at twice the per capita GNP (Gross
National Product). This has led to a situation where the country is
expending tremendous resources in servicing debt and not servicing
people.” Henriot, who lived and worked in Lusaka for the past 15 years,
said that the campaigners need the help of rich countries to redirect
spending into areas like healthcare and education. Independent
development groups say that AIDS, famine, poor education and corruption
ravage poor nations. They estimate that 8,200 people die every day due
to lack of access to AIDS drugs alone. Six million people are in dire
need of antiretroviral treatment. The groups say they want Washington to
lobby before the meetings to promote the idea. ”The U.S. must use the
next eight days to negotiate effectively with G7 countries and the G7
countries must commit themselves on Oct. 1 to most necessary and
effective intervention to fight AIDS, which is 100 percent cancellation
of debt for all poor countries on the IMF and World Bank's own dime and
without harmful conditions imposed by the IMF and the World Bank,” said
Sharonann Lynch, from HealthGap, a group campaigning for access to AIDS
medicine. But some groups say they are worried that political
maneuvering may be behind the idea. Eurodad, a prominent European
anti-debt group, said in a statement Friday that details of the U.S.
Treasury's proposal for full debt cancellation remain sketchy. They fear
that it is more than likely to include full debt cancellation for only a
limited number of countries. Lynch warned that Washington may be
floating the idea to get backing for its strategic and political
decision to get rich nations to forgive some 120 billion dollars in
debts for Iraq. Eurodad said it is concerned that the Bush
administration simply wants to boost its image at home and abroad,
achieve debt relief on the cheap while guaranteeing an almost complete
write-off of Iraq's commercial foreign debt. ”It is not good enough for
the U.S. to make an announcement or float proposals that have sweetened
the deal for countries to swallow the consideration of debt relief for
Iraq while doing little for impoverished nations battling HIV/AIDS,
Lynch said. ”In the face of the largest threat to global security,
people living with AIDS and their advocates are saying: 'no more half
measures.” Jubilee USA, a U.S.-based anti-debt group, says the timing
may in fact serve poor nations as the Bush administration may want to
score points before the U.S. presidential elections on Nov. 2. ”The fact
that the U.S. is putting forth this proposal during the U.S. presidency
of the G8 and in advance of a close presidential election race makes
this a unique political moment for debt cancellation,” said Marie Clarke
of the Jubilee USA Network. ”We must have a deal on debt on Oct. 1. A
unilateral declaration by the United States will not be enough to carry
this through. We hope that the U.S. will do what is necessary to come to
come to a consensus with the rest of the G7.” World Bank President James
Wolfensohn acknowledged on Thursday that it was getting harder to
persuade rich nations to tackle poverty, AIDS and suffering in Africa
because of a preoccupation with Iraq and instability around the world.
Washington has focused intensely on security concerns since the attacks
of Sep. 11, 2001 and has swept many other major issues under the carpet.
”It is hard to get people to focus on these issues when the world is
spending 900 billion dollars on defence,” Wolfensohn told London's
Financial Times. ”What is important is to make people conscious of the
fact that the short-term preoccupations with Iraq, Afghanistan and
terrorism have to be met,” Wolfensohn said. ”But we can't lose any time
on the medium and long-term issues of poverty and development.”
(END/2004)To contact the







Neil Watkins
Outreach and Communications Coordinator
Jubilee USA Network
(202) 783-0129
www.jubileeusa.org

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