News & Reports

News & Reports

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G8 fails to agree 100% Debt Cancellation In spite of leaked report that the G* would agree to 100% debt cancellation by the World Bank and IMF, the communiqué only offers to to extend the current HIPC program Debt Sustainability for the Poorest Sea Island, June 10, 2004 The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) has to date provided welcome debt reduction to 27 countries pursuing economic reform programs, 23 of them in Africa, and is providing $31 billion in debt service relief over time. We are committed to fully implementing the HIPC initiative and to supporting debt sustainability in the poorest countries through debt relief and grant financing. To that end, we have asked our Finance Ministers to: - Work with other donors and the international financial institutions to extend the sunset date of the HIPC initiative until December 31, 2006 and to provide the necessary financing for completion of the initiative, including topping up where appropriate. - Consider measures that can further help the poorest countries address the sustainability of their debt. We have asked for a progress report on these efforts by the end of the year. We urge other creditors to fully participate in the HIPC initiative.
JDC Web Group News items for more see update v Blair to lead report into poverty! v Gordon Brown’s speech at the conference ‘Making globalisation work for all - the challenge of delivering the Monterrey consensus’ v World Debt Day – May 16^th v Guyana finally gets debt relief Ethiopia & Niger win top-up debt relief of $1.2bn after successful campaigning (April 2004) After Jubilee campaigners lobbied Gordon Brown to overcome American and German opposition to fair debt relief, the World Bank and IMF have accepted that Ethiopia and Niger have reached Completion Point and secured the top-up relief to keep their debt burden below the target figure of 150% of export earnings. Ethiopia
Eurodad - Debt statement:- All the European groups campaigning on Debt have adopted a common position:- * HIPC should meet the MDGs * Fair and transparent insolvency mechanism * Cancel all odious debt see -European Campaign	Did the G8 Drop the Debt? Five years after the Birmingham Human Chain, what has been achieved, and what more needs to be done? New report from Jubilee Research, Jubilee Debt Campaign and CAFOD (May 2003)
Gordon Brown's IFF If the G8 won't cancel the debt then more aid is needed to meet the MDGs seems to be Gordon's strategy. Along with Claire Short he launched the International Finance Fund to borrow money to finance more aid before 2015, to be paid by the rich countries over 30 years. this would be a debt burden on the rich countries. see more at IFF	Sovereign Debt -Insolvency The IMF is preparing SDRM -Sovereign debt Restructuring Mechanism for the spring Bank meeting. But it isn't what Jubilee Plus have been campaigning for with their @Framework' see Ann Pettifor's report SDRM
Submission to the World Bank/IMF Eurodad, Christian Aid, CAFOD submission to the World bank/IMF see Eurodad This joint report provides an excellent summary of the deficiencies of the current HIPC program and the justification for cancelling debt rather than increasing aid	The Unbreakable link - debt relief and the millennium development goals. A new report by Jubilee Research and JDC shows that huge increases in aid are needed to meet the MDG's, and that debt payments are currently siphoning off almost 90% of grants !! See unbreakable link Impact of HIPC See the progress of the debt cancellation so far and compare the World bank figures with reality! 100% Cancellation The World Bank and IMF have rejected the call for 100% cancellation. Read the Web Group's response Take action, write to Tony Blair to demand that poverty reduction takes priority over debt repayments.
G8 -Canada No deal on debt! All that has been promissed is an extra $1bn to fund the existing HIPC scheme. The G8 have said a half of the extra aid promised at Monterrey will go to Africa -we shall see if the US honours that pledge! But, the communiqué did repeat their mantra:- "no country genuinely committed to poverty reduction, good governance and economic reform will be denied the chance to achieve the Millennium Goals through lack of finance"
UN Finance for Development Conference - Monterrey ' Always look on the bright side!' Campaigner's can 'look on the bright side' as both the EU and USA promise up to $12bn/a of additional aid funding! Whilst this is far short of the $54bn/a aid needed to meet the MDGs, it represents a significant increase in aid and could deliver five times as much new cash / year as the Jubilee campaign has delivered so far. See Monterrey communiqué - -UN FfD Ghana gets to HIPC Decision Point -BUT Ghana has made one of the fastest moves to reach decision point, the JDC AGM was told by the Ghanaian High Commissioner, bringing savings of $200M annually to be used for poverty reduction. BUT, a civil protest has erupted because the PRSP is calling for the privatisation of water supplies, with all the well known risks and impact on the poor. Take action, write to Tony Blair to demand that poverty reduction takes priority over debt repayments. World bank has reserves to cancel the debts! Eurodad has completed a stunning report which shows that the World Bank has been building up it's reserves - increased almost $5bn over the last 6 years, increased it's 'reserves-loans' ratio from a guideline 8% to over 14% and could 'afford' to contribute over $8bn to debt cancellation. Download the report - - Going the extra mile:

To put this aid in perspective, Jubilee 2000 campaigned for the debt cancellation of the 52 heavily indebted poor countries. The G7 governments only ever accepted 42 countries and although they promised $100bn in debt stock reduction, the progress so far has seen actual debt service payments reduced from $23bn to $21bn/a, just $2bn/a less.

Jubilee Web Group - last updated 31 Oktober 2006

Eurodad, Christian Aid, CAFOD submission to the World bank/IMF see Eurodad