The Finance Caucus fully supports the campaign by Jubilee 2000.

The CSD calls for developed countries to initiate:

* a one-off cancellation of the unpayable debts
     ·  of the world's poorest countries
     ·  by the year 2000,
     ·  under a fair and transparent process.

Unpayable Debts of the World's poorest countries   Over 50 countries in the world have debts that will never be paid back but continue to be paid daily with people's lives. The debt burden of the poorest countries is 93% of their income. In Zambia, every citizen now owes the country's creditors $790 - more than twice the average annual income. Every year resources are being diverted from health, education and sanitation towards unproductive debt service.

The United Nations Development Programme in 1997 stated that 21 million children's lives could be saved if the money used for debt service was put into health and education.
     ·  Jubilee 2000 and the CSD NGO Finance Caucus  calls for the cancellation of unpayable debt   it will never be paid economically or will be paid only by exacting unacceptable costs in diverting resources from health, education and sanitation.

How much is the debt and who is it owed to?

  Jubilee 2000 has identified 52 of the poorest countries in the world as being in urgent need of debt cancellation. These countries, of which 37 are in Africa, owe a total of $354 billion. About half of this is owed directly to individual governments - mainly Japan, the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy - the "G7". Most of the rest is `multilateral' debt - owed to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which are effectively run by the G7 governments. Only about ten per cent is owed to private banks. So what is needed is a decision by the leaders of the G7 - and the commitment of the World Bank and IMF to implement it.

Why cancel debt?

  Because debt kills. Debt repayments divert money away from basic life-saving health care in the world's poorest countries. The UN estimates that if funds were diverted back into health and education from debt repayment, the lives of seven million children a year could be saved. That is 134,000 children a week. Jubilee 2000 says debts which kill should be cancelled.

How can we be sure that this will help the poorest people and not be taken by corrupt leaders?

  Jubilee 2000 is quite clear that any new resources released by cancelling debt need to benefit ordinary people, not elites. The best ways to attack corruption are to reduce poverty and to increase openness and transparency. Jubilee 2000 wants to see decisions about spending priorities in developing countries made in partnership with people, represented by civil society and elected representatives of people's groups. These groups can work to monitor governments and officials and expose corruption, and ensure that funds diverted from debt repayment are spent effectively on improving health care and education. This process will open up third world governments and help foster democracy and respect for human rights.
 
  The IMF and the World Bank need to play their part in reducing corruption. These  institutions and the West has a long history of funding for dictators who received IMF loans long after clear evidence that he was siphoning money into Swiss Bank accounts.  They too must open up their own processes to scrutiny and transparency.

  It is not beyond the combined capability of the international community to find effective ways to ensure that funds are spent on the urgent needs of ordinary people, without imposing unnecessary conditions on countries from outside. What is lacking is
the political will to cancel unpayable debts in the first place - and corruption must not be used as an excuse to do nothing.
 
Cancelling debt will itself be a blow against corruption, as the comfortable relationship between lending elites and borrowing elites is broken down. And of course, poverty breeds corruption. By tackling debt, one of the principle causes of poverty will be removed.

Isn't debt just the fault of corrupt elites?
How can we ensure the debt crisis does not happen again?

Under a fair and transparent process   The current lending and debt relief process is fundamentally unjust. International loans are negotiated in secret between local elites and powerful creditors like the IMF, the World Bank and government export credit agencies.

Loans are often made for political reasons or to promote exports. Ordinary people who pay the costs as funds are diverted from water, health, education and sanitation into debt repayment. There is no international bankruptcy law so no line is drawn under unpayable debts. Instead any debt relief negotiations are always driven by creditors, who are naturally unwilling to write off debts.

     ·  Jubilee 2000 calls for co-responsibility of debtors and creditors for the debt crisis.
     Remission of debt should be worked out through a fair and transparent process
     ensuring full participation of debtors in negotiations on debt relief.

Milestones in the Campaign
     ·  1990   All African Council of Churches called for a Year of Jubilee to cancel Africa's debts
     ·  1994   Martin Dent (professor in Keele University) linked up with Bill Peters (ex- Diplomat, Malawi) and Isabel Carter (Community News Editor, Tearfund) to promote the Jubilee 2000 campaign in the UK.
     ·  April 1996   Jubilee 2000 campaign in the UK launched by three major Christian aid agencies in Britain and by the World Development Movement.
     ·  March 1997   International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, representing 124 million workers, backed Jubilee 2000 campaign as "well-devised and realistic."
     ·  April 1997   Women's organisation in India toured Southern India addressing meetings and collecting 30,000 Petition Signatures
      ·  Jubilee 2000 Campaign launched in Sweden and USA 
      ·  Jubilee 2000 Clock launched in Piccadilly Circus, London
      ·  October 1997   Jubilee 2000 UK became a coalition of over 60 national organisations. The Board was elected with members from churches, trade unions, aid agencies, campaigning and black community groups
     ·  February 1998   German and UK Campaign marked 45th anniversary of London Debt Agreement in which Germany was granted huge debt relief after the Second World War. CAFOD dumped fake gold bullion outside German embassy, Christian Aid supporters sent in thousands of postcards.
     ·  April 1998 - The Jubilee 2000 Afrika Campaign was launched in Accra, Ghana attended by activists and delegates from 20 countries on the Africa continent.
     ·  16th May 1998   70,000 people formed a human chain around G8 Summit in Birmingham, UK. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair met Jubilee 2000 Organisers.
     ·  24th September 1998   Mock Voting Booths were put up outside German embassies in Tokyo, Oslo and London, Edinburgh and Manchester with people voting for debt relief in the run up to the German General Election.
     ·  1st-4th October 1998 - Jubilee 2000 USA National Conference
     ·  15-17 November 1998 - 38 National Jubilee 2000 Campaigns and 12 International Organisations meet in Rome to decide common policy and campaign strategy
     ·  January 1999 Pope John Paul II calls for urgent debt relief to ensure the millennium becomes "a time of renewed hope"
     ·  25-27 January 1999 -Launching of the Latin American and Caribbean Jubilee 2000
     Campaign in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, with the participation of 16 countries.
     ·  April 1999 -First Foreign Debt Tribunal in Rio, Brazil. Around 1,200 people attended.
     ·  April 1999 Mozambique's President backs Jubilee 2000 and calls for total debt cancellation
     ·  April 30 1999 Philippines campaigners form human chain around Asian Development Bank in Manila
     ·  May 1999 Comic Relief launches Debt Wish campaign
     ·  24 May 1999 President-elect Obasanjo calls for 'immediate and substantial debt relief' for Nigeria and pledges to fight corruption
     ·  10 June 1999 Bono goes online to talk about debt in world's biggest Net chat
     ·  12 June 1999 10,000 form human chain in Edinburgh
     ·  13 June 1999 50,000 join hands around river Thames to call on Blair to drop the debt
     ·  19 June 1999 50,000 form human chains in Cologne and Stuttgart to demand G7 drop the debt. $100 billion debt cancelled
     ·  23 July 1999 UNICEF report reveals devastating impact of debt on children
     ·  September 1999 Thousands of US supporters join 'rolling fast' to highlight debt crisis
     ·  23 September 1999 Pope meets Jubilee 2000 delegation including Bono, Jeffrey Sachs, Bob Geldof, Willie Colon and Ann Pettifor
     ·  29 September 1999 Clinton agrees to cancel 100% of bilateral debt owed to USA
     ·  11 November 1999 4000 form human chain and blow trumpets outside British Treasury to call for 100% debt cancellation
     ·  13 November 1999 Thousands take to the streets in over 20 cities in Spain to call for debt cancellation in advance of Ibero-American Summit
     ·  30 November 1999 30,000 form Human Chain for debt cancellation at WTO conference
     ·  17 December 1999 Gordon Brown announces 100% bilateral debt cancellation for 26 countries