You are cordially invited to attend a briefing on House Resolution 241 which calls for the immediate cancellation of Haiti’s multilateral debt.
The briefing will be held on Thursday, October 4, from 3:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. in 2105 Rayburn House Office Building. It is co-sponsored by Jubilee USA, TransAfrica Forum, Partners in Health, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, and the Quixote Center.
At the briefing, presentations will be made by representatives from:
- Mark Weisbrot, Co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research
- Jacklin Saint-Fleur, MD, Medical Director, Centre Hospitalier Sainte Catherine Labouré in Cite Soleil
- Paul Pierre, Haiti Program Coordinator, Partners in Health
- Nicole Lee, Executive Director of the TransAfrica Forum
- Brian Concannon from the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti will moderate
BACKGROUND
Haiti’s multilateral debt is odious: Over half of it is for loans granted to corrupt and brutal dictators like Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier. It is also onerous, as it diverts over $57 million per year from a country where half the people struggle to survive on $1 a day or less.
On March 13, 2007 Representatives Waters, Bachus, Delahunt, Lee, Payne, Conyers, Gutierrez and Maloney introduced H.Res 241 and the resolution now has 63 co-sponsors. H. Res 241 recommends that the Secretary of the Treasury and the U.S. Executive Directors at the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank exercise U.S. influence to completely and immediately cancel Haiti’s debt to these institutions.
These financial institutions have already allowed Haiti entry into their debt relief programs, but under the framework of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative they have imposed restrictions and policies that prevent the debt from being cancelled for at least the next two years.
A two-year delay of debt cancellation translates into $110 million-140 million which would be better spent to provide health, sanitation and education services to Haiti’s impoverished population and to maintain the country’s stability by supporting democratically-elected President Preval’s government
We hope that you will attend the briefing to hear more specific details about these issues and benefits of immediate debt cancellation for Haiti.
Please contact Tom Ricker at Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center at tomr@quixote.org or (301) 699-0042 for further details.
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