Blog the Debt

Tune Into News & Notes on NPR Today

Imani Countess, Jubilee USA Board co-chair and TransAfrica Forum's senior director of Public Affairs, will be on NPR's News & Notes w/ Farai Chideya today at 1 p.m. EST (here in DC) discussing the Jubilee Act, debt cancellation and Zimbabwe among other things. If you miss the broadcast, you can visit the News & Notes website and listen to it there after 3p.m. EST.

Note: So debt cancellation wasn't discussed, but Imani did talk about Zimbabwe's post-election crisis. Last year Imani and Briggs co-wrote an article on the American Friends Service Committee Website explaining some of the links between Zimbabwe's current political crisis and IMF debt repayments. Read the full article and take action.

You can also read an article written in early April by Patrick Bond, director of the Durban-based Centre for Civil Society, where he compares Zimbabwe and Kenya's elections and talks about the possibility of new loans coming to Zimbabwe.  In early April, Patrick Bond, director of the Durban-based Centre for Civil Society, wrote about what's happening with Zimbabwe's elections within the context of the debt crisis:

Meanwhile, an ominous dance began between Tsvangirai and the forces of imperialism. According  to a Reuters report today, the MDC would gain access to US$2 billion per year in 'aid and development' ­ which normally is top-heavy with foreign debt and chock-full of conditions.  Amongst these, most likely, are dramatic cuts to the civil services, so that the Zimbabwe central bank stops printing so much money, fueling inflation. But the downside is the potential deepening of the country's economic crisis in the short term, as effective demand falls while more luxury goods become available thanks to foreign exchange inflows.

The key players are the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Union and the United Nations. No doubt Bush's White House is also involved in negotiations, which, if Tsvangirai persuades Mugabe to depart, may even reach fruition next week at the IMF/Bank spring meetings in Washington.

More In depth about the IMF

Todd Tucker over at the Public Citizen’s Blog, Eyes on Trade, posted a blog today about the Jubilee Act passing the House (he just returned from vacation, but we can celebrate again) and an even bigger conversation many people in the NGO community are having about the IMF’s impending death.

So, the IMF ain’t dead, but with so many middle income countries like India and China paying off their loans, the IMF isn’t making as much money as it did before when they were very much in need of loans to survive. In order to save staff jobs, the IMF is banking on shareholder authorization to sell its gold. The IMF has the third-largest gold reserve in the world (behind the U.S. and Germany).

We think the money is better used on funding debt cancellation for impoverished countries like Lesoto than funding staff salaries and posh meetings. I’m sure the bill racked up from luxury hotel rooms, cars and food could probably fund a few education, water, road and health care projects in some of the impoverished countries they’re asking to repay loans.

FOE: World Bank Carbon Plan 'A Protection Racket'

By Daniel Nelson | OneWorld UK

A World Bank-backed carbon-reduction programme in which concessional loans would be offered to developing country governments was compared to a “protection racket” by Friends of the Earth Director Tony Juniper at a meeting in London at the weekend.

He said it would be like smashing the windows of a car and then demanding money to stop further damage.

“A deep injustice in the development model is being put together,” he said of the plan. READ FULL ARTICLE

And...Discussion of the Jubilee Act Continues

Testimony of Nancy Birdsall, president of Center For Global Development (CGD), is explained on the CGD Blog.
Debt Relief No Panacea, Birdsall Tells Senate Foreign Relations Committee
CGD President Nancy Birdsall praised the intent of new legislation (S. 2166) to expand debt relief to additional poor countries, but cautioned against the bill in its current form last week at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. She urged the U.S. to first pay nearly $900 million in arrears to the multilateral development banks and consider other mechanisms to help poor countries protect themselves from external shocks, including natural disasters and sudden increases in food, oil or other commodity prices. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Neil Watkins, Jubilee USA Network National Coordinator, responds to the CGD post in the comments section.
I couldn’t agree more than debt relief is “no panacea” to global poverty. In fact, none of the witnesses at the April 24th hearing at which Nancy Birdsall testified, nor any staff or leaders of Jubilee USA Network, the debt cancellation advocacy organization I lead, would claim such a thing.

The more relevant question is: would additional debt cancellation be helpful and complementary to other strategies in the fight against global poverty? To this, the answer seems to be a resounding “yes.” READ FULL COMMENT HERE. Scroll down to the bottom of the first blog to read Neil's response.

Jubilee Act Debate: 'Tough Love' is Just Bad Policy

After the Jubilee Act passed, a number of groups have been speaking out in support of and against the Jubilee Act, legislation that would cancel the debts of 24 countries and secure the benefits of debt cancellation of 46 countries. Some people don't agree with that notion. But, especially when one disagrees, it helps to be informed.

In a Washington Times Op-ed written on Monday, American University Economics Professor George Ayittey and Africa Fighting Malaria President Richard Tren, both men fault the Jubilee Act for rewarding corrupt regimes at the expense of American taxpayers. They also call the legislation "sweeping and broad," without really outlining what parts are lean toward such generalities.

Jubilee USA National Coordinator Neil Watkins and Policy Fellow Daniel Pals respond to the editorial bya sking the two to read the Jubilee Act, which specifically outlines the criteria for countries to be granted debt cancellation, some of these specific requirements are free and fair elections, public financial management, the majority of a country's budget cannot be used for military expenditures (which is currently where most of the U.S. budget is going toward).

('JUBILEE ACT IS TOUGH' continued below 'TOUGH LOVE NEEDED' after jump)

Food Crisis in Haiti Continues

In Haiti, people are starving because of the increasingly rising food crisis. Jacqueline Charles and Pablo Bachelet of The Miami Herald discuss the current conditions. As world leaders find ways to reduce the crisis, Neil Watkins of Jubilee USA stresses that the cancellation of its debt payments may help ease these challenges.

OAS leader outlines recovery plan for Haiti food crisis
By JACQUELINE CHARLES AND PABLO BACHELET

(AP) -- The secretary-general of the Organization of American States says Haiti should expand its agricultural base and resume production of rice and other items to help resolve a deep food crisis.

José Miguel Insulza says rising world food prices present an opportunity for the poor Caribbean nation to increase crop production for local consumption and foreign markets.

The OAS said in a statement that Insulza visited Haiti briefly on Friday. He and leaders from several countries offered proposals on how Haiti can recover from the crisis.

At least seven people died in Haiti earlier this month during food riots that cost Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis his job.

Spinning the IMF: Losing Influence or Gaining Power?

OP-ED in the LA Times
The IMF's dwindling fortunes
Thanks to disasters of its own making, the agency is losing money and influence.
By Mark Weisbrot | Center for Economic and Policy Research
April 27, 2008

'The IMF is back," declared the International Monetary Fund's managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, at its annual spring meeting earlier this month in Washington. And not a moment too soon either. To hear the organization's economists tell it (as they mingled in five-star hotels, long black limos and posh restaurants with bankers, businessmen and finance ministers from around the globe), they've arrived on the scene just in time to help solve the world's financial crisis.

But despite the bravado, the reality is that today's IMF is not what it once was. These days, the world's most famous deficit police force is running a whopping small-country-size $400-million annual deficit of its own and is being forced into some of the same kinds of "structural adjustments" it used to impose on indebted Third World nations. In just the last four years, the IMF's total loan portfolio has shrunk from $105 billion to less than $10 billion; over half of the current portfolio consists of loans to Turkey and Pakistan. To cut costs, the agency is reducing staff and closing offices.

READ FULL ARTICLE

UPCOMING: ADB Solidarity Dialogue & Forum

English Version

Spanish Version

Perspectives on Kenya

KENYA: Big Cabinet, Bigger Challenges
By  Kwamboka Oyaro
NAIROBI - The oaths of office have been taken, and solemn pronouncements made about the ills that have dogged Kenya's past, and the way to address these in the future. Now, can the East African country's vast new coalition government move from talking the talk to walking the walk? http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42051

U.S Help for PM Stuns Supporters of Kenya President Kibaki
By Peter Clottey | Voice of America
Clottey Interview With David Musila - Download (MP3) audio clip
Clottey Interview With David Musila - Listen (MP3) audio clip

Supporters of Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki are reportedly unhappy with the direct support the United States government has extended to Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s office. This comes after the US ambassador to Kenya pledged more than 500-thousand dollars to sustain the development and smooth running of the prime minister’s office. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger reportedly said the United States government recognizes the critical role a prime minister can play in the coalition government as mandated by the constitution.

Bread For the World Blog: NM Representatives' Jubilee Act Voting Record

In New Mexico, all three of the state's representatives are running for the Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Senator Pete Domenici. The Bread For the World group in New Mexico discusses legislation and voting records of all three representatives/senate candidates on anti-poverty legislation, including the Jubilee Act:

we have more than enough information on how the three Senate candidates, Reps. Heather Wilson, Steve Pearce and Tom Udall, voted in regard to the issues that are important to Bread for the World members and anti-hunger and anti-poverty allies. Similar information is available for Sens. Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman.

Read Full Article Here