draft africa bill debt language - summary

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

This is a summary/short version of the debt language, which may be all
that is needed for now, or which may be more useful for the Central
America effort. A following message will have the full version.

I think what follows reasonably reflects the consensus position of those
who've participated in on-line and in-person discussions about this. 

The faster people can respond to both versions, the better. I'd like to
get a final version to Lori Wallach by early next week.

Robert Weissman
Essential Information			|   Internet:	rob@essential.org


Debt-related provisions of Africa sustainable development bill

1. Finding: IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programs have imposed
enormous preventable suffering on African people. Structural adjustment
policies exacerbate income and wealth inequality, slash government
spending including in the critical areas of health, education and the
environment, hurt women, force wage cuts and downsizing, and demand an
export orientation that depresses wages, encourages unsustainable resource
exploitation and undermines food security.

2. Policy: Primary goals of the United States include: Full cancellation
of African foreign debt, with no linkages to adoption of structural
adjustment programs, and enactment of a cap on future debt payments so
that no African country shall pay an amount exceeding 5 percent of its
annual export earnings toward the servicing of foreign loans.

3. Policy: Primary goals of the United States include: Encouraging African
countries to adhere to their United Nations 20/20 Initiative commitment to
support investment in human development, by directing at least 20 percent
of savings from debt cancellation basic social services, with appropriate
input from civil society in developing basic service plans, as called for
in the 20/20 Initiative.

4. Complete cancellation of all debt owed to the U.S. government.
(Alternative: 90 percent cancellation for budget accounting benefits.)

5. Advocacy that the G7 that other creditor countries cancel all of their
bilateral debt.

6. Advocacy by the United States at the IMF and World Bank that
multilateral debt be completely cancelled, with government beneficiaries
encouraged to allocate at least 20 percent of savings to basic social
services. Requirement that the U.S. express its position in writing, call
for votes on the initiative and report to the Congress on the results of
the votes.

7. Placeholder: Provisions to come on encouraging cancellation of debt
held by private sector creditors.