The Jubilee Blog

Jubilee Hits the Town in Pittsburgh

Been sitting on the edge of your seat reading about the G-20 Summit this week? If so, you've probably seen mention of the Jubilee USA team in Pittsburgh, spreading the word about the importance of Global South voices in the debate over the global economic system.

Check out the news so far:

• "IMF Chief Urges More Aid for Poor Countries"* By Harry Dunphy, Associated Press, September 12 *This article was taken from Nola.com but has also been featured in the Taiwan News, AOL Australia News, and The Economic Times in India
• "Sunday G-20 Forum: Lift the debt burden on poor countries" By Reverend John Welch and Ruth Messinger, featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette September 20
• "Permit snafus strike first marches: Demonstrations for jobs and the poor begin the week's protests" By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 21
• "G-20: The Global South Is Too Big To Fail" by Hayley Hathaway, writing for Sojourners God's Politics Blog, September 22
• "The G20 Must Wake America Up" By Kevin Gallagher, The UK Guardian, September 24
• "Protesters to leaders: Stay true to Africa" By Karamagi Rujumba, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 25
• "G-20 and the World's Poor" Mark Leon Goldberg, UN Dispatch, September 25

If you want to get your voice heard, click here to take action and send a Letter to the Editor today

The G-20: Falling Short for the Global South

By Julia Dowling  

What does it mean to the world’s poorest citizens that the G-20 is meeting September 24-25 in Pittsburgh?  As Jubilee’s latest research shows, the G-20 haven’t made enough of their great improve the economic and financial conditions that are affecting millions in the Global South.  As the world descends deeper into the financial crisis, it’s become clear that low income countries are the hardest hit, and the people living in these countries are suffering the most.  At the spring G-20 summit in London, President Obama stated, “Finally, we are protecting those who don’t always have a voice at the G-20, but who have suffered greatly in this crisis.”  Despite this statement, recognition of responsibility to poor countries hasn’t yet translated into enough money or real change on a household level.

During their spring summit, the G-20 committed a total of $1 trillion to developing countries, of which $50 billion is supposed to go to the poorest, low income countries.  Of this $50 billion, Jubilee USA has only seen $23.5 billion delivered.  Furthermore, the G-20 decided to rely on the World Bank and, especially, the International Monetary Fund fulfill such commitments.  

What do these decisions mean for low income countries?  Upon turning to the well-funded international financial institutions for assistance, the poorest nations can look forward to further indebtedness and a deepening of the crisis—the IMF will provide the new money as loans, not grants, and will still require a number of illogical and often harmful conditions.  Just this year, when Ethiopia badly needed resources to curb the affects of the crisis, the IMF required them to cut domestic fuel prices in order to secure a loan.  On the ground, this means that rising fuel prices prevents the poorest Ethiopians from taking long, difficult journeys to get basic medical services.  IMF policies have, through restrictive fiscal measures, forced people in the most vulnerable countries to choose between such basic necessities as transportation and food. 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Permit snafus strike first marches

The G-20 summit is already causing strong responses out of civil society, and it hasn't even begun yet!  On the front page of the Post-Gazette an article describes one such event at the Smithfield United Church of Christ.  Privilege Hang'andu, our guest speaker from Jubilee Zambia, was at the event and is eloquently quoted in the article.  Check out Privilege's words below: 

Permit snafus strike first marches:Demonstrations for jobs and the poor begin the week's protests

By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"The interfaith event began Smithfield United Church of Christ. It was a politically and religiously left-leaning crowd. Folk singer Anne Feeney opened with a song satirizing opponents of same-sex marriage.

The big ovations came for two speakers from the trenches of global poverty. Benedicto Martinez Orosco, co-president of a major labor federation in Mexico, said that corporations have pushed people off their ancestral lands and polluted what's left, forcing many to migrate to the United States. Privilage Haangandu, debt program officer for the Jesuit Center for Theological Reflection in Zambia, described poor nations burdened with enormous loans that their corrupt leaders had received and then stolen. He described a family of seven that took turns eating because they couldn't afford to eat on the same day.

'This is the message that millions of people in Africa want to put to the G-20. ... We want a complete overhaul of global economic architecture,' he said.

'We are going to spent $10 million ... on security for a few days in Pittsburgh when millions of children are starving.'"

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Sunday G-20 Forum: Lift the Debt Burden on Poor Countries

On Sunday, September 20th the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an op-ed written by Reverend John Welch and Ruth Messinger, talking about the moral obligation to cancel poor countries' debt in order to improve basic living standards.  Read their inspiring call to action below:

Sunday G-20 Forum: Lift the debt burden on poor countries. Without debt relief, the developing world has little hope of economic progress

By Rev. John Welch and Ruth Messinger, published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This week, when leaders of the most powerful and wealthy nations in the world gather here in Pittsburgh for the G-20 summit, they can strike a powerful blow for social justice and humanitarianism. By taking concrete steps to fight global poverty, especially through cancellation of the debt burdening poor countries, they can ease human suffering and bring hope to some of the most desperate places on Earth.

The global financial crisis, which has devastated families in Western Pennsylvania and nationwide, is having an even more dire impact in the developing world. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the global South, children who should be in school are instead hospitalized with diseases that could have been prevented with simple vaccinations. But the money many of these countries should be spending on basic education and health care is instead being funneled to multilateral banks in the form of steep debt payments.

The affected countries didn't land in this predicament just by their own irresponsibility. If anything, they are paying the price for recklessness on Wall Street. They have often been victimized by bankers who aggressively made loans to brutal and corrupt governments, knowing full well that those loans would not benefit the people. In many cases, soaring interest rates and compound interest make it impossible for these countries to eradicate debt even after scrupulously making their payments time and again.

The G-20 nations do appear to be coming through with increased assistance in the form of new International Monetary Fund loans. But for the very poorest countries, more loans -- on top of the old ones they can't manage -- may be pouring fuel on the fire.

If they are serious about helping the poorest countries through this worldwide depression, they must implement a bold program for additional grants and expanded debt cancellation. And they must move quickly to establish strict guidelines for responsible lending and borrowing, cracking down on predatory practices that exploit rather than empower debtor nations.

As a first step, they must condemn and regulate so-called "vulture funds," which buy up poor countries' debt for pennies on the dollar on the secondary market and then swoop in to sue for millions in damages. These funds usually operate stealthily, with little transparency, basing their operations in tax havens like the British Virgin Islands

Associated Press: "IMF Chief Urges More Aid for Poor Countries"

The Center for Global Development hosted a discussion with Managing Director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Khan, about what the IMF is doing to help low income countries during the financial crisis; the event was jam-packed with press, members of civil society, and staff from the financial institution.  In an article by the Associated Press, Jubilee USA's latest research efforts were highlighted as proof that poor countries are in greater need than ever before, and that the upcoming G-20 summit should be a time for pushing ahead in delivering commitments made during the spring summit. Read the full article here, or check out this snippet below.  

Excerpt from "IMF Chief Urges More Aid for Poor Countries"

By Harry Dunphy, The Associated Press

"In another report timed for the G-20 meeting, Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of 75 religious denominations, human rights groups and developing agencies, urged leaders at the session to speed up progress toward commitments made to poor nations at an April G-20 summit in London.

Of the 13 goals the G-20 made at that meeting that are most critical for the world's poorest, Jubilee said the 20 nations are on track to meet 5, failing to meet 4 and unlikely to meet 4 others without major attention.

'The economic crisis is crushing the world's poorest countries, but the G-20 is falling short,' said Neil Watkins, executive director of Jubilee USA Network. 'The G-20 must keep their promises and adopt even bolder measures to address the impact of the crisis on the poor.'"

Check out Jubilee USA's G-20 Progress Report, Summary and Full Report, and be sure to check back for more updates on the G-20 summit next week!

Privilege Speaks

Part 1

Recently, Jubilee USA caught up with Privilege Hang'andu from Jubilee Zambia & the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection. This fall he’s gearing up to make his way to the US to speak at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, PA and Jubilee’s Regional Conference in Oklahoma City, OK.  

These are exciting times for this Program Officer for Debt; Privilege was privy to a meeting of civil society groups this summer who met to create a new framework for responsible lending and borrowing.  Zambia’s recent tragic experience with Vulture Funds gives Privilege the unique perspective on a new world of just lending and borrowing.  Read on to hear what Privilege has to say on Zambia’s latest steps towards economic justice.

Jubilee USA: You were recently a participant in a major international civil society strategy meeting which led to the creation of a new Charter on Sovereign, Democratic, and Responsible Lending. Why is this important and how will this document and process be helpful to your efforts in Zambia?

Privilege: Recent campaigns in Zambia for a responsible lending and responsible borrowing framework are in place... This will make our government in Zambia and donors lending to the Zambian government [responsible] -  countries should have a comprehensive debt framework in place to manage the inflow    and out flow of resources with regard to development. 

Jubilee USA: Why is it so important for there to be new global rules that govern borrowing and lending?

Privilege: The global economic crisis is a pressing situation for developing countries as they are in a desperate position with fast eroding reserves as experienced by Zambia, falling commodity prices as Ghana with cocoa and challenging socio-economic issues such as poverty and job losses across most developing countries. 

Therefore, responsible lending and responsible borrowing is a pertinent issue for the international lending institutions as this is a time when developing countries could all too easily fall into a debt trap as was experienced prior to the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) completion point.

Members of Zambian civil society have been working on a debt management bill giving Parliament the authority to approve new loans for the country instead of leaving loan decisions to Finance Ministers and a small group of officials. This parliamentary oversight would create greater transparency and responsibility in borrowing decisions by the government - deals wouldn’t be made behind closed doors. 

         Stay tuned for part two of Privilege’s interview and see what he has to say on the upcoming G20 meetings.

      Read more about these new developments to create a more just global system in Jubilee’s fall newsletter.