The Jubilee Blog

Red Flags and Red Lights for IMF Lending to HIPCs

Are new IMF loans are canceling out benefits of debt relief? Read the blog from Center for Global Development's Ben Leo. Click here to see original post.

Red Flags and Red Lights for IMF Lending to HIPCs
By Ben Leo
May 20, 2010

This blog entry also appeared on the Huffington Post.

As the global economic crisis spread throughout the developing world in 2008, some of us waited for the next unfortunate phase for poor, debt vulnerable countries – the resumption of massive IMF lending.  This is a movie that we’ve seen many times before.  And we know the ending.  Sadly, it’s less of a Hollywood ending and more of a Parisian tragedy.

It didn’t take long to get the IMF engine roaring.  In 2008 and 2009, the IMF provided nearly $2.7 billion in new loans to Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs).  And, much more has been set aside for HIPCs and other poor countries.  Granted, this lending was important for offsetting the impact of the global crisis and preventing further macroeconomic disruptions.  The problem is that it also is greater than the total amount of IMF debt relief provided so far under the landmark 2005 Gleneagles Summit deal ($2.6 billion).  In other words, the IMF has wiped out the achievement that civil society groups marched for and ultimately celebrated with only two years worth of new loans.

VIDEO: The Other Debt Crisis: Climate Debt

See article and video on Climate Debt posted on Common Dreams this week:

The climate crisis in Bolivia is not a headline or an abstraction - it is playing out in people's lives in real time.

Melting glaciers are threatening the water supply of the country's two biggest cities. Increasing droughts and floods are playing havoc with agriculture.

So it is no surprise that in climate negotiations, Bolivia is emerging as a leader in the global south - advancing both radical solutions and analysis that make rich countries distinctly nervous.

On this edition of Fault Lines, Avi Lewis travels to Bolivia to explore the country's climate crusade from the inside.

It is the story of an emerging movement, based in the global south, raising questions about who owes what to whom in confronting the climate crisis.

And it is playing out in Bolivia's epic landscape - from the tropical glaciers to the endless salt flats. A landscape that in normal times seems to mock the very idea that human beings can change the course of nature.

Debt vs. Localization: Climate Justice in the New Economy

See this cool article published on Thursday, May 13, 2010 by YES! Magazine. Do you think Korten knows about Jubilee?

Debt vs. Localization: Climate Justice in the New Economy
Where does the concept of "climate debt" fit into a New Economy framework?
by David Korten

As the climate changes, the consequences for poor people in low-income countries-those who have had no part in the profligate consumption that created the problem-will be particularly devastating. This fact is bringing climate justice to the fore of the agenda for many progressive groups that deal with international issues. But even among those groups, all proposals for dealing equitably with the climate crisis are not equal. The differences between them highlight an important contrast between Old Economy and New Economy perspectives.

Stop the Vulture Culture: The Real Life Story of Vulture Funds

By Hayley Hathaway

Do secondary debt markets, hedge funds, and offshore banking make you want to dance?

Not until now. Jubilee USA's newest video brings us the "real life story of vulture funds."  These predatory funds buy poor countries' defaulted debt for pennies on the dollar, then sue for huge profits - the original amount of the debt plus sky-high interest and legal fees - once the country gets new resources thanks to debt cancellation.  International debt cancellation should mean more resources for vital education, health care, and infrastructure, not more money in the pockets of wealthy scavengers. Vulture Fund profiteering is completely immoral, but currently totally legal. Instead of getting overwhelmed by this cruel reality, we decided to show Vulture Funds for what they are: ridiculous and absurd.

NY Times: "At Front Lines, AIDS War Is Falling Apart"

 Today the New York Times brings the increasingly harsh reality of the fight against AIDS to the front page in At Front Lines, AIDS War is Falling Apart:

On the grounds of Uganda’s biggest AIDS clinic, Dinavance Kamukama sits under a tree and weeps.

Her disease is probably quite advanced: her kidneys are failing and she is so weak she can barely walk. Leaving her young daughter with family, she rode a bus four hours to the hospital where her cousin Allen Bamurekye, born infected, both works and gets the drugs that keep her alive.

But there are no drugs for Ms. Kamukama. As is happening in other clinics in Kampala, all new patients go on a waiting list. A slot opens when a patient dies.

Jubilee partners HealthGAP have launched a new site, TakeANumber.org to highlight the Obama Administration's failures to keep the promise to fight global AIDS.

A Strong and Gifted Woman Empowered

Debt Detective Reports on Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality
By Pat Rumer, Jubilee Debt Detective

This is Pat, the Debt Detective in Zambia wishing everyone back in the United States a Happy Mother's Day this weekend. In honor of this day, I'm looking at Millennium Development Goal #3: promoting gender equality and empowerment. Look forward to two stories about two amazing women. First, I want to introduce you Emily Sikazwe, director of Women for Change (WFC), and whom some of you might remember as a featured speaker on a Jubilee USA tour in 2007.

Emily has served as Executive of WFC for twenty years.  WFC is a gender focused organization whose primary agenda is women’s rights in rural areas.  They are an advocacy organization and work with 120 women’s NGO’s in Zambia.  In addition they work with the Tribal Leaders’ Council to introduce gender equality into traditional societies.  They are active in monitoring the national budget from a gender perspective.  Emily serves on the board of Gender Action, a member of Jubilee USA Network Council.