The Jubilee Blog

G7 Finance Ministers Focus on Growth in Face of High Debt

By Sophia Har 

G7 finance ministers gather in Dresden, Germany, to discuss promoting "sustainable growth" in the face of growing global debt. US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is among the ministers gathering. The meeting takes place amid debt crises in the Eurozone and the developing world. The ministers meet after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported slow economic growth and increased debt burdens during the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings.

"‎It's impossible to experience sustainable growth, when wealthy and poor countries are struggling with unsustainable debts," stated Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network, who is in Dresden for the meetings.

The finance ministers gathered in Dresden include Joe Oliver of Canada, Michel Sapin of France, Wolfgang Schäuble of Germany, Pier Carlo Padoan of Italy, Taro Aso of Japan, George Osborne of the United Kingdom and Jacob Lew of the United States. Jubilee USA joined Jubilee Germany in Dresden for several G7 outreach events organized on the growing debt crisis. 

Action Alert: Nepal Debt Relief

As Nepal scrambles to recover, the struggling country pays nearly $600,000 a day on debt. It pays more than $4 million every week.

Please act now and tell the heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to immediately cancel Nepal's debt.

Nepal's earthquake killed more than 8,000 people and impacted millions more. Displaced families are forced to sleep outdoors as aftershocks batter the country. According to the United Nations, twelve babies are born in earthquake-impacted areas in Nepal every hour without basic health care. And Monsoon Season is looming...

Debt relief can free up millions of dollars to immediately support rebuilding and recovery efforts on the ground. Your support won a new debt relief trust fund designed exactly for this purpose - to support poor countries in times of crisis. Now this fund could be used to cancel $23 million in debt for Nepal, but only if we act. 

Debt Relief for Nepal

By Sophia Har

Join us in calling on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cancel Nepal's debt.

Over the course of three weeks, two major earthquakes struck Nepal and took over 8,000 lives. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world and pays nearly $600,000 a day in debt. Jubilee USA calls on the IMF and the World Bank to immediately cancel Nepal's debt to support recovery and rebuilding efforts.

This February, Jubilee USA won a new debt relief trust fund at the IMF designed exactly for this purpose - aiding poor countries in times of crisis. This fund could cancel the $23 million Nepal owes the IMF over the next two years, but only if we act. Meanwhile, Nepal owes the World Bank $1.5 billion in debt. We call on the World Bank to cancel that debt and create its own emergency fund for poor countries in crisis.

Please sign and share our petition calling for debt relief for Nepal.

Devastated Nepal Daily Pays $600,000 on Debt

By Sophia Har

According to the most recent public World Bank figures, Nepal pays $594,000 a day in debt payments as cited by the religious development organization, Jubilee USA Network. World Bank figures report that Nepal owes $3.8 billion in foreign debt and in 2013 paid $217 million in debt payments, or nearly $600,000 a day. Nepal was already one of the world's poorest countries, ranking 145th out of 187 countries listed on the United Nations Human Development Index, before an April 25th earthquake hit the country killing more than 8,000 people. On Tuesday another earthquake of 7.3 magnitude killed more than 100 additional people in the country.

"It's mind-blowing that one of the poorest countries in the world, struggling with earthquake recovery, pays $600,000 a day on debt," said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA. "That's $4 million a week that could be going toward recovery and rebuilding."

As Nepal scrambles to rebuild before the approaching Monsoon Season, it finds itself in debt to the tune of $1.5 billion to the World Bank and another $1.5 billion to the Asian Development Bank. The country also owes $133 million to Japan and $101 million to China.

Governments Negotiate UN Agreement on Global Development

IMF's Lagarde and World Leaders Will Attend Historic Ethiopia Summit

By Sophia Har

The United Nations, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and finance ministries are meeting in New York to finalize an agreement for the Financing for Development Conference (FfD) to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in July. The summit seeks to tackle global poverty and features the IMF's Christine Lagarde, heads of state, business leaders and humanitarian groups such as Jubilee USA Network. Pope Francis has committed to attend the Sustainable Development Goals Conference to follow up on the commitments from the Financing for Development process.

"These negotiations are critical for billions of people living in poverty," said Eric LeCompte, executive director of the religious development organization, Jubilee USA Network. LeCompte and Jubilee USA are involved in negotiating the FfD outcome document. "This is a rare opportunity to create a binding global plan to drastically diminish poverty in our lifetime."

This summer's conference is the third Financing for Development summit. The first summit was held in 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico. It produced the "Monterrey Consensus," which laid out six areas of development financing. The 2008 summit in Doha, Qatar, led to commitments from developed nations to continue aid to developing nations and to address a number of systemic global economic concerns that contribute to global poverty such as debt, trade and tax issues. As the United Nations Millennium Development Goals expire, current negotiations continue to focus on these "systemic" issues in the form of domestic resource mobilization, or supporting developing countries to raise more revenue in their countries.