[stop-imf] Press Advisory: IMF/World Bank Fail Health Inspection, Slated for Closure

[robert weissman]

50 Years Is Enough Network <?http://www.50years.org?> :: Africa Action
<?http://www.africaaction.org?> :: Jubilee USA Network
<?http://www.jubileeusa.org?> :: Mobilization for Global Justice
<?http://www.globalizethis.org?> :: Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative
<?http://www.shaii.org?>

*Press Advisory :: For Immediate Release :: 17 April 2006*

*Contact:* Hope Chu, 50 Years Is Enough Network: +1 202 463 2265/+1 303
667 6613
Morrigan Phillips, Mobilization for Global Justice: +1 202 258 1822

*IMF/WORLD BANK FAIL HEALTH INSPECTION, SLATED FOR CLOSURE
/People's Department of Health declares IMF/World Bank hazardous to
public health/*

*/Attention Photo Editors and Photographers:/* /Activists will stage a
theatrical event on Friday, 21 April 2006, at noon in front of IMF
headquarters, H and 19th Sts NW, Washington DC./

*Who: People's Department of Health
What: Delivery of failing health report to the IMF/World Bank
Where: IMF headquarters, H and 19th Sts NW, Washington DC
When: Friday, 21 April 2006, Noon*

WASHINGTON - Next Friday, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
World Bank hold their annual spring meetings, health inspectors from the
People's Department of Health will present the institutions with an
order to close. Citing numerous serious violations, including the
promotion of policies that have devastated the quality, availability,
and accessibility of health care in impoverished countries around the
world, health department inspectors have declared the IMF and World Bank
a public health hazard.

The health inspectors point to the institutions' tunnel vision approach
to economic policy as a primary culprit. A main concern is the IMF's
insistence on keeping inflation rates low which routinely requires
countries to limit public spending - including spending on healthcare -
regardless of the needs of the country. Such policies led to healthcare
spending in Sub-Saharan Africa, at the center of the HIV/AIDS crisis,
dropping from an already low $17 per person/year in 1997 to a dismal $12
per person/year in 2001. The People's Department of Health also
underscores IMF/World Bank-mandated health care privatization and
impoverished countries' foreign debt burden as exacerbating health care
crises around the world.

/People's Department of Health Inspection Team: 50 Years Is Enough
Network, Africa Action, Jubilee USA Network, Mobilization for Global
Justice, and Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative./