Southern Voices – Views from the South on Debt and Inequality Jubilee 2000 Coalition

Contents

Southern Voices on the HIPC Initiative

"Expanded HIPC means increased misery and debt for peoples of the South. HIPC is fundamentally flawed because it is linked to structural adjustment. These programmes have been shown to have devastating impact on account of diminished spending capacities for social services and job creation.

HIPC is a scheme of the creditors for the creditors. The Expanded Initiative is not faster deeper or broader debt relief as the G& claims. In fact it is a self-serving formula to keep governments in the South from defaulting. Judged by its own formula, the Koln Initiative still deals with less than 2% of the total nominal debt stock of the South...the plan is also inconsistent with the OECD commitment to halve the levels of absolute poverty by the year 2015.

For moral reasons, the debt of the South is illegitimate. Furthermore, it has been paid over and over again. Jubilee South does not speak of partial debt relief, but rather of full reparations. We demand total, unconditional cancellation of all the debts of the South".

Jubilee South Rejects Koln Debt Initiative as a Cruel Hoax, Jubilee South Press Release, 22/6/99

Speaking about Africa's own induced problems the President stated clearly that "without shame we must also say that the world cannot set aside such an enormous swathe of humanity and live with a clear conscience''....... "Everything is happening as if we are trying to regulate the world's population through Malthusian logic, to let the weakest die so we can have a world of the rich and let the poor go to the wall".

Welcoming the IMF managing director's statement that 33 African countries would benefit from debt write-off the President stated "but what are the 33 countries that have benefited? Their debts could not have been paid anyway. We are looking at a macabre scene of someone visiting a dying man and telling him `you can die without debts' you can die happy because you do not have debts to pay"' "The debt problem will not be solved this way. We knew the 33 countries could not squeeze anything out anymore, anyway. Writing off their debts is a welcome gesture. But we need to bring these countries up, to bring their dignity back, charity is not enough".

President Bouteflika, Unctad X, Bangkok 21/03/00

"In 1985, before I retired as Head of State of my country, I came to Europe in my capacity as that year's chairmen of the OAU. I came to plead for debt relief for Africa. To every audience I spoke to I put the question: `Do we have to starve our children in order to service our debts?' In those 14 years the situation has got worse."

"So I repeat "Do we have to starve our children in order to service our debt?" Continuing Julius Nyerere talked about the need to pay creditors in order to borrow etc. "failure to pay these institutions leads to a suspension of further disbursements from them and a total boycott by the whole Donor Community. Shylock never had such power over his victims."

However apart from "the announcement by these institutions that, under certain circumstances, they too will not insist on the whole pound of flesh...the willingness to consider debt relief is about the only good thing about this HIPC Initiative. Otherwise it is not helpful to the poor. Its eligibility conditions are impossible to fulfil and its benefits nil or negligible"

Address by Julius Nyerere to Jubilee 2000 Rally in Hamburg, 27/4/00

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said "practice has shown that the steps envisaged by the initiative are half-hearted and far from adequate."

"What I find most objectionable about this initiative and most other debt reduction initiatives, is that they are being used as the whip to enforce unquestioning acceptance of the economic orthodoxy – the so called "Washington Consensus – that is being promoted by some international financial institutions ". "The choice which we are left under HIPC is thus to either abandon all independent and rational thinking in economic policy making or wallow in the quagmire of unsustainable debt". "It is a choice between the devil and deep blue sea. To use the whip of the debt over-hang to enforce this orthodoxy in debt-ridden countries is in some ways tantamount to blackmail and is therefore both unviable and immoral".

Speech made at 33rd ECA joint Conference of African Ministers of Finance and Ministers of Economic Development and Planning – Addis Adaba, 6-8 May/99 May 11 1999 Africa: Leaders Call for Faster policy on Debt Relief, Lewis Machipisa, Third World Network, www.twnside.org.sg/title/policy-cn.htm )

Zie Gariyo, co-ordinator Ugandan Debt network in an open letter to all Creditor Country representatives stated "You have shifted the goalposts and set new conditionalities for debt relief. We do not accept the new conditionalities being set up by the Paris Club creditors. They are insensitive to the concerns of the poor in Uganda and Sub Saharan Africa in general. They undermine the global civil society and the Jubilee 2000, a global civil society movement campaigning for total cancellation of unpayable external debts of poor Third World countries including Uganda". Continuing, in conjunction with the US Congress refusal to approve US$210 million to finance US participation in HIPC he stated "Needless to say, the debt relief initiative is becoming one of the scandals of the 21st Century."......"'Debt relief is a hoax"....."So far only five countries have qualified...this means it could take up to fifteen to twenty years for all countries to reach the completion point."....."Ugandan Debt Network is concerned that donors are taking us for a free but dangerous ride"....."Your actions and those of your colleagues seem to undermine our achievements so far"....."At this particular time, we should be discussing the causes of Uganda's debt burden and ensure it does not happen again instead of discussing threats to withhold debt relief".

Zie Gairyo, Coordinator UDN, Kampala, May 19th 2000, www.jubilee2000uk.org/news/ugandalet250500.html

Declaration at the end of the Bolivian national Forum on Poverty Reduction in La Paz stated that the debt relief expected under the HIPC Initiative was a ''first step towards greater international justice'' but that the new funds available as a result of debt relief do not present a solution to the problems imposed by debt.

Bolivian Civil Society Asserts Demands for Involvement in Fight for Debt Cancellation and Poverty Reduction

"The recent history in Guyana reveals the contradictions within the process for qualification for debt relief. Guyana patiently followed the rules, and now we are not being rewarded for doing so. >From the point of view of the Guyanese people, stalling the process is not about new dates – the debt burden is severe and constrains the ability of the government to act on extremely urgent domestic priorities such as education, health, water, physical infrastructure and public administration capacity. In short, without new debt relief commitments, the economy runs the risk of stagnation."

The Guyanese High Commissioner to the UK, Laleshwar Singh, `Three Countryside Receive Debt Cancellation', Jubilee 2000, January 27 2000.

Southern Voices on the Scope of the HIPC Initiative and on Debt Cancellation

"At a recent meeting Commonwealth countries welcomed the latest HIPC initiative but expressed disappointment at the slow implementation of the process.

It is not as if the cost of such debt relief would be exorbitant. The actual cost of cancelling the combined debts of the 52 poorest countries is estimated at $71 billion - less than was paid out in grants alone to 16 European countries under the postwar Marshall Plan.

This is the right time to implement a new approach to debt relief and write-offs. We in the Commonwealth, who represent one third of humanity, propose a new approach to speed up the process"

Rumman Faruqi, Commonwealth Secretariat - International Herald Tribune, 20 September 2000

"Finding a permanent solution for foreign debts of developing countries essentially will contribute in achieving economic growth, development and in boosting the global economy," the G15 Summit final statement said.

G15 call for more debt relief – Associated Press, 21st June 2000.

"Let us, above all, be clear that, without a convincing programme of debt relief to start the new millennium, our objective of halving world poverty by 2015 will be only a pipe dream".

As written by Kofi Annan in his "21st Century Action Plan" published in April 2000.

A joint statement of the Chief Executives of the OAU and Economic Commission for Africa and African Development Bank AFDB, issued in Ouagadougou February 5th 1999 stipulates '' that the international community will need to go beyond current initiatives so that more African countries can benefit from debt relief and thereby enhance their growth prospects''.

Eurodad Debt Update, 26th February, 1999

"It is heart-warming to know that your petition campaigns are doing so well at all levels, especially the collection of 17 million signature world-wide in support of debt cancellation and the starting of a Nigerian version. Surely, the voices of all these signatories and the needs of the people who will benefit from debt cancellation should evoke a meaningful reaction from the leaders of the G8 if we are to build a better world in this new millennium."

Nigerian President to address Jubilee 2000's People's Summit in Okinawa, www.jubilee2000uk.org/news/okinawa070700.html

"Other means of producing a direct increase in liquidity in developing countries should also be explored. One possibility would be to remove the debt overhang of highly indebted poor countries through a rapid write-off of their unpayable official and multilateral debt".

Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of Unctad, to High Level Symposium on Trade and Development, World Trade Organisation, Geneva, 17/3/99

"UNCTAD X will place special emphasis on the need for a speedy and bold solution to the debt problems that continue to put a strain on the budgets of most countries of the South and that stop them devoting resources to their financial development. The initiatives taken so far in this area do not seem to be providing lasting solutions to the problem. Their implementation is always slow and the criteria and conditions for eligibility are too inflexible".

Hassan Aboutahir, Councillor at the Permanent Mission of Morocco to the UN in Geneva, 1999 www.southcentre.org )

"Additionally, we must sustain the dialogue on the endemic external debt problem of the developing countries, in particular the HIPCs. Measures thus far to alleviate these crushing debt burdens have been useful but inadequate in providing the measure and nature of debt relief required. We urge our partners in the developed countries to turn to more comprehensive debt reduction solutions which could release additional financial resources for development."

Statement by Clement Rohee, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Guyana, on the Occasion of assuming the Chair of the Group of 77 and China for 1999, New York, 12/1/99

''We note with dismay that poverty in Africa has now reached intolerable levels, with negative consequences for stability of most countries and regions of the continent. In order to reach the internationally agreed targets of reducing poverty by half by the year 2015, African economies must grow at a rate of 7% per annum. Present trends must therefore be reversed, starting with the writing off of bilateral and multilateral debts and a substantial increase in financial flows and FDI."

Declaration 37 of the South Summit, Group of 77, Havana, Cuba, 10-14 April 2000

At the close of the EU-Africa Summit in Cairo, 3-4 April 2000, President in Office, President Mr Bouteflika of Algeria, welcomed the announcements made in favour of the most heavily indebted countries which saw France proposing to cancel 100% of Debt, Spain cancelling $200 mn owed by SSA, Germany pledging a debt relief package of DM 700 and Morocco cancelling all African LDC debt to Morocco, even though he described them as "only a drop in the ocean".

EU-Africa Summit 3-4 Cairo 2000

The Africa-Europe Civil Society Forum called "for the cancellation of the debt of all African countries, without exclusion and without prioritisation/hierarchy". Forum met in Lisbon 31/3-1/4 and was attended by 70 representatives of African and EU civil society organisations. Forum organised by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe and facilitated by the European Commission.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, whose comments were read out at the ECA meeting in Addis Adaba stated that "the scope of..HIPC should be greatly expanded to enable more African countries to qualify". Mr. Annan reiterated that "all creditors should convert into grants all remaining official bilateral debt of the poorest countries, and creditors should consider clearing the entire debt stock of the poorest African countries..."

President Rene Preval called for the total and immediate debt cancellation for Haiti during a meeting with Jubilee 2000 campaigners on Thursday 8th May continuing that there should be closer collaboration between government and civil society in the important battle for debt cancellation.

President of Haiti calls for total debt cancellation www.jubilee2000uk/news/haiti120600.html)

''We are alarmed at the fact that debt servicing has grown at a much greater rate than the debt itself, and that the burden of debt payments has become heavier in many countries of the South, including countries with low and middle incomes. We therefore underline the need collectively to pursue a durable solution for the external debt problem of developing countries, including middle-income developing countries, which also addresses the structural causes of indebtedness. We further call for debt reduction arrangements for middle-income developing countries in order to expedite the release of resources for development.''.

Declaration 26 of the South Summit, Group of 77, Havana, Cuba, 10-14 April 2000

''We welcome the expanded initiative in favour of the highly indebted poor countries, but consider that it should be extended, expedited and made more flexible, and that new and supplementary resources should be contributed.''

''We note with grave concern the debt burden, which has put the least developed countries in a more vulnerable position, and urge the developed countries to write off their debts so as to relieve the LDCs of the burden and thereby strengthen their capacity to develop and to escape from the vicious circle of poverty.''.

Declaration 26 & 27 of the South Summit, Group of 77, Havana, Cuba, 10-14 April 2000

''The underdeveloped nations external debt is amazing not only because it is terribly high but also due to its outrageous mechanism of subjugation and exploitation and the absurd formula offered by the developed countries to cope with it''. ''Once again I should repeat what we have been saying since 1985; the debt has already been paid if note is taken of the way it was contracted, the swift arbitrary increase of interest rates on the US dollar in the previous decade and the decrease of the basic commodity prices, a fundamental source of revenue for developing countries''.

Address by Dr. l Castro, President of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, at the Opening Session of the Group of 77 South Summit Conference, Havana 12th April

''The heavy external debt burden and large unsustainable debt service obligations constitute a major obstacle to social and economic development, the fight against poverty, and stable democratic governance...it is clearly unacceptable that the external debt burden should to continue to constrain our ability to channel public investment into physical and social infrastructures and human resource development...the countries of the South must be able to make a fresh start to grapple with the socio-economic development of their countries. To that end developed countries must agree effective and speedy debt remission beyond the onerous and protracted HIPC conditions. The categorisation of indebtedness into HIPC and others is itself arbitrary and without relevance to the realities of those who have to shoulder the burden of debt. In the spirit of shared responsibility for the debt crisis, developed countries should also consider the possibility of debt moratorium so as to immediately lift the burden from developing countries''

Address by His Excellency President Olusegun Obasanjo, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Chairman of the G-77 at the South Summit 12/4/00

"The World's community must therefore move expediously beyond the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative by assisting them to achieve meaningful reduction in both stock and debt and its servicing".

P.J. Patterson, Prime Minister of Jamaica and Chairman of G-15, speaking at the Ninth Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Group of Fifteen (G-15), Montego Bay, 10/2/99

Southern Voices on the Speed of Debt-Relief/HIPC

"For the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, the crisis has turned what for years has been a very difficult situation into an intolerable one. The developed countries have been remiss, for far too long in addressing this important issues."

Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, speaking at the Ninth Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Group of Fifteen (G-15), Montego Bay, 10/2/99

South African President Thabo Mbeki in his New Year message challenged the rich nations to cancel the debt. "Ways and means must be found to wipe out this debt as quickly as possible".. Mbeki also drew attention to the stark contrast between the affluence of the North and the poverty of the South, saying "You can't disengage the poor countries from the richer countries and you can't guarantee continued expansion of the economies of the developed world if you don't address the matter of the further enrichment of these other billions of people who have no access to what is being produced because they are so poor".

Debt still firmly on the political agenda as European and African leaders speak out on Debt, www.jubilee2000uk.org/news/debt260100.html

Trevor Manuel, South Africa's Finance Minister, speaking on behalf of the 12 member African constituency said the promise in the International Monetary Fund's key policy body that the committee's decision to beef up and expand the HIPC initiative looked as if it had been "broken". "We resolved that debt relief would be deeper, faster and broader but this was not happening." "The initiative has become a prolonged, resource intensive and over complex process". The objective of three-quarters achieving relief by the end of this year now appeared "almost unreachable".

Debt Relief Plan Failing – Simon Barber, 17th April, Africa News Online

Malawian President Bakili Muluzi stated at the opening of the annual Consultative Group meeting between Malawi and its mainly Western lenders on Monday "immediate debt relief is required. This remains our wish since Malawi devotes a substantial amount of its resources to debt servicing". Debt servicing consumes 25% of Malawi's government budget; compared to only 10% that goes to basic education, primary health, and nutrition and water development. ''

Reuters May 16th 2000

Southern Voices on Poverty Reduction and Strategy Papers

Mr. Festus G. Mogae, Botswana President speaking at the centre of international development at Harvard University professed concerns at the PRSP process about "the time and effort that the drawing up of such a paper is likely to demand, bearing in mind the poor levels of analytical and organisational capacity in many national governments and the inevitable divergences of views among the donor countries and institutions". As result, he concluded, the "debt relief expected from the combination of the enhanced HIPC Initiative and all debt relief from other traditional sources will actually take a long time coming, while the situation on the ground goes from bad to worse with each passing day". .

Luncheon Address on HIPC Initiative, Centre for International Development, At Harvard University, Cambridge USA May 1st 2000

Talking about the PRSP Mr. Manuel noted his constituency had raised "severe concerns" about this requirement and it had now become a "significant obstacle to faster debt relief and is damaging the integrity of the "debt relief program. Also, in order to gain debt relief from the IMF and The World bank, the principle creditors in most instances, countries had to secure similar levels of debt reduction from bilateral lenders, including developing countries themselves facing heavy debt burdens. This was both "immoral and unjustifiable"

Debt Relief Plan Failing – Simon Barber, 17th April, Africa News Online

Southern Voices on the Creditors

"...Allow me, from here, to send in that same spirit of truth and tauhid, our greetings to the great consumer countries, members of G-8, and the European Union, from where we have received some messages, be they public messages, and even some private messages, via letters I won't read to you for ethical reasons, telephone calls. One time, a resident of a powerful country in the world called me up and I felt, I was amazed, a call from so far away? What is the price? And I picked up the phone and he tells me: Mr. President, I'm concerned over the price of the barrel of oil. And it wasn't even at $25 at that time, and they were already concerned. I share your concerns, Mr. President. And it's a good opportunity that we should have this talk. Why don't we talk about the external debt, which is scourge of the poor countries of the world? Why don't we speak about the terms of trade which are so unequal and savage, and the imposition of the economic systems which control the world, which Foster recently called in his new book "the economic dictatorship of the world"? Why don't we talk about those matters? Let's speak about these matters? "

Official opening Speech by Mr. Hugo Chavez Frias, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Summit of Sovereigns, Heads of State and Governments of OPEC, 28 September 2000

'The debt process is not an easy one and we in the G15 group do not give orders ( to donor countries ) "said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek, the summit chairman. Rather, he said, G15 nations "should clarify to industrial nations that developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia, cannot develop as long as they are tied down with these debts."

G15 Call for more debt relief – Associated Press, 21st June 2000.

"The forgiveness of debts is one of the greatest themes of the Bible's Jubilee. We know that today it is the poorest inhabitant who pay for the poor countries' external debt with their lives......it is precisely up to the richest and most industrialised countries to make this cancellation a reality. The next G8 Summit in Okinawa is a fitting moment for this."

Father Gustavo Gutierrez speaking at the launch of the Peru Jubilee 2000 e-mail action, June 24th 2000.

''The war of the rich against the poor - that is precisely what foreign debt is. So it is in this moment that the year of the Lord's grace should be announced and proclaimed. We must remind the powerful of this world that they can't become owners or take power over human life. All we have, all that there is here is God's. It belongs to God and no one else''.

Luis Alberto Garcia, El Salvador - Break the Chains Handbook, 1999

"Along with debt cancellation, macroeconomic policies and global institutions must be transformed to meet the needs of the majority, not the elite. The rich and powerful countries have cancelled debts on numerous occasions this century – both each other's and powerful allies. They have hitherto done so for narrow political purposes. They must now act on the Jubilee principle for social and humanitarian renewal. This must involve the cancellation of the debt and must not become an excuse to impose conditionalities on economically vulnerable countries".

Founding declaration of the South Africa Jubilee 2000 Campaign

Thabo Mbeki stated ''the alleviation of the debt burden carried by many of our countries, including its cancellation'.' Mbeki criticising the words of Mr. Camdesseus who said '' a new kind of citizenship must be created, not simply a vague cosmopolitanism, but a genuine citizenship at all levels: local, regional, national and global". (Georgetown University, Washington, Feb. 2 2000). ''The relevance of this has just been demonstrated in our region of Southern Africa. Various countries of the North came to Mozambique to help the government and people of that sister country to cope with a very serious flood disaster. A week after they had arrived to demonstrate this solidarity, they refused to do the most obvious thing to express solidarity with the suffering Mozambican people, namely, to cancel Mozambique's debt. Presumably such a humane decision would have been inconsistent with their national policies, to use Mr. Camdesseus's expression.''

Speaking about what to do Mr Mbeki said ''a number of tasks lie ahead of us. We have to fight to ensure the democratisation of the international institutions of governance, including the UN and the BWI. We must work for the mobilisation of the masses of the countries of the North to sensitise them to the imperative to eliminate global poverty and inequality, in the interests of all humanity''.

Address of the chairperson of the non-aligned movement, Thabo Mbeki, at the opening of the South Summit, Havana 12 April

In her opening remarks on behalf of the Mozambican Debt Group, Mrs. Graca Machel set the tone for the meeting when she said "we need to accept that the debt crisis is a shared responsibility. Creditors, indebted government and civic associations all have to live up to their responsibilities. The creditors need to realise that their contribution in this is the cancellation of debt". Southern and Eastern African Conference on HIPC and ESAF, Maputo, 31/8-2/9/98

"It is abundantly clear that there is no way we can repay our debt and still make our economies competitive and viable" "Creditors should be made to accept this step (cancellation) immediately, and as a matter of urgency"..... "There is no question of us seeking to survive outside the context of the global economy"...... "It is within the global village that we must press for a more acceptable and fairer relationship between the developed countries of the north and the poor underdeveloped countries of the South". Speaking about how he viewed globalisation, Chissano continued: "Global economy should be made to mean global participation – as things stand now, we run the risk of remaining just as globalised countries deprived of any expression". Interdependence between the north and south "is like the interdependence between a cow and its owner. The owner needs the cow because of its milk. The cow needs the owner because he provides it with hay. But when the cow ceases to produce milk, the owner may well decide to slaughter it. The cow cannot do the same to the owner". Chissano continued that no-one had asked African or Caribbean nations about their opinions regarding the international division of labour "we don't have much say in the establishment of commodity prices" whilst the "international political and economic imbalances, far from narrowing have become greater"..... "old and unfair relationships are producing themselves in a much wider, faster and dramatic way".

Kingston, 20th September 1998. www.africpolicy.org/docs98/debt9809.htm

"The current 2000 national Budget of Nigeria..is roughly N600 bn ( roughly $6 bn ), which is what the District of Colombia is budgeting to spend on its schools in the coming year. But this Year 2000 budget means that 120 million Nigerians will have to starve for about 5 years if it is to use up all of its money to pay off its external debt if all interest payments were frozen today"

Criticising the US, Mr Aluko stated the US must "exercise greater political will and a serious commitment to find the funds to make deep debt relief a reality, and must appropriate, not just authorize, to raise the current level of funding to the needed $345 mn for this year. The fact of the matter is if that if the US government contributes its fair share to the international development plan, and you and your colleagues approve $810 million over the next three years, this will encourage all creditors to do their part, and $90 billion in debt can be written off for 33 of the world's poorest countries. This is because due to US leadership, every dollar that you contribute to the HIPC Trust fund will leverage more than $20 from other international creditors and regional development banks. More than 17 countries have already made a contribution and several others have made pledges to the trust fund on the US contribution. They are waiting for your action!"

Modalaji Aluko, President Nigerian Democratic Movement before the US Congressional subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy on Banking and Financial Services, May 25/00 "Debt Relief, Loot Recovery and Constitutional Reform in Africa" www.Africapolicy.org/docs0/nig0006.htm

Southern Voices on Poverty and the Impact of Debt

"The opportunity to start anew must be seized. Through an act of immeasurable power and grace, let us grasp the nettle and reshape the world's economy."

Archbishop Ndungane of Cape Town. Break the Chains Handbook, 1999.

Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Esquivel declared the debt ''a massive and systematic violation of human rights''. ''No country should pay more than 3% of its government budget on debt service''- a level equivalent to that set for Peru in 1946 by the International Community.

27/1/99 Latin American campaign says cap debt service at 3% of budget, www.jubilee2000uk.org/news/latin1202.htm

"Our incurring debt has not primarily been our fault and hence 'forgiveness' is not what we are seeking but justice".

Zambian Church leaders - August 1998.

"We poor farmers are at the centre of an economic game we will never understand and can never win".

A Gambian Farmer - Break the Chains Handbook, 1999

''I have attended many summit meetings but never before have I seen such a coincidence of opinion among Third World leaders'' Castro stating that this indicated ''the severity of the crisis facing our countries in their efforts to achieve development, and the growing inequality and discrimination they suffer''. ''Every single speaker alluded to the debt tragedy that limits our resources for economic and social development in a thousand different ways''

''There was practically unanimous agreement on the view that the benefits of globalisation extend to only 20% of the world's population, at the expense of the other 80%, while the gap between the wealthy countries and the marginalised world grows wider''

Dr. Fidel Castro, closing session of the South Summit April 14 2000.

''Today, the external debt is one of the greatest obstacles to development and a bomb ready to blow up the foundations of the world economy at any time during an economic crisis''.

Address by Dr. l Castro, President of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, at the Opening Session of The Group of 77 South Summit Conference, Havana 12th April 2000.

"If next year Tanzanians decided to forgo all their earnings – in other words, if they decided to starve themselves to death in order to pay off their external debts – they would succeeded in paying only about 78% of their debt burden. They would all go to their graves with an unpaid debt of nearly US$57 per capita. That kind of poverty cannot pay off that kind of debt". Continuing Julius Nyerere criticised the need for constant rescheduling of debt, and the capitalisation of unpaid interest on arrears which led to "the constant need to borrow in order to service our debt; the constant need to service our debt in order to borrow – that is, in order to earn the right or privilege to increase our Debt burden further, that is why we can no longer get out of this vicious circle". Address by Julius Nyerere to the Jubilee 2000 Rally in Hamburg, 27/4/00

"Debt is tearing down schools, clinics and hospitals and the effects are no less devastating than war".

Dr. Adabayo Adedeji, African Centre for Development Strategy and Honouree Co-President to Jubilee 2000 Afrika campaign

''When I am asked why the debts of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries should be cancelled, my answer is simple: These countries are very poor: their debts are immense and unpayable; and their heroic attempts to pay inflicts intolerable pain on people who are already poor''

Address by Julius Nyerere, former President of Tanzania, to the Jubilee 2000 Coalition in Hamburg, 27/4/99

Touching on the need for solidarity and partnership among African countries, President Bouteflika said solidarity of the poor is a fantasy more than a dream "our people are big hearted. But the big problem is African debt".

UNCTAD 10, Martin Khor, Third World network, www.twnside.org.sg/title/twr1161.htm

Southern Voices on Structural Adjustment Programmes

"We have fulfilled all the IMF and World Bank conditions. We have implemented IMF programmes in all the sectors and as a result, social indicators have improved. The fiscal deficit in 1999 at 3% was below the 4% recommended by the IMF. Yet now, six months later, Guyana is still defined as off-track for under the current Enhanced heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative. We do not understand why".

President Bharret Jagdeo speaking to Liana Cisneros – Jubilee 2000 Latin American Co-ordinator - on Friday 16th June 2000

The Group of 77 and China in its Marakesh Declaration of 16 September 199 says simply: there is a need to "define a new development paradigm based on sustained economic growth and sustainable development", and that debt relief should no longer be "attached to performance under the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility".

Kicking the Habit Report, P15

Most of the presentations and the debates that took place inevitably focused on the African experience with structural adjustment implementation. Participants reviewed various aspects of the initiation, design and implementation of structural adjustment, noting that, in most cases, the market reform policy measures prescribed for (and imposed on ) African countries tended to cause more harm than good. It was also noted by several participants that the overdose of donor conditionality.....applied to African countries......have exacted far-reaching social and political costs both in terms of widening poverty and the systematic erosion of sovereignty. On several occasions, speakers at the conference mentioned the re-invention of the "colonial division" of labour as being a general consequence of adjustment implementation...The participants at the conference were emphatic that structural adjustment and the multilateral financial institutions that are its authors have failed Africa.

Africa, Structural Adjustment and the Multilateral Financial Institutions, South Centre Report on Conferences in Burkina Faso –backed by OAU, AFDB and ECA - and Ghana – Convened by Third World Network (Africa) attended by 4 civil society groups from 4 African states- June and July 1999

"Clinton can do better. The imposition of structural adjustment conditions attached to the promised 100% bilateral cancellation is not an effective way to eradicate poverty. It will obstruct real debt cancellation, increase joblessness, limit social services, and deepen poverty and inequality".

Jubilee 2000 South Africa Press Statement on Clinton's Debt Cancellation Announcement, 3/10/99.

"This is like dealing with the gods. If you do well all the time but then slip up just before you die, you still go to hell. It wipes out all the good you have done before".

Julius Nyerere, May 1998, Break the Chains Handbook, 1999.

"Countries which are desperately poor, and whose debt service obligations are much too high in relation to export earnings and Government revenue....have often found their reform programmes under IMF/World bank support thrown off course by political turmoil and social unrest. Such countries also need help, and badly too. The HIPC Initiative would treat them as undeserving. But they may be considered deserving, perhaps even more so that others, on alternative scales of judgement."

"In a well knit village community, no family is allowed to go without food and shelter, if none other is deprived of these basic necessities of life. The same principal should apply to the global village of today.. Indeed, the globalisation which we never tire talking about and welcoming, should make it morally unacceptable that a fifth of humanity remain submerged in absolute poverty and deprivation, while many of the rest of mankind are enjoying spectacular advances in their living standards".

Luncheon Address by President Mogae on the HIPC Initiative, Centre for International Development, At Harvard University, Cambridge USA May 1st 2000

"Why have you failed?" the World Bank experts asked Joseph Nyerere. Nyerere answered: The British Empire left us a country with 85% illiterates, 2 engineers and 12 doctors. When I left office we had 9% illiterates and thousands of engineers and doctors. I left office 13 years ago. Then our income per capita was twice what it is today; now we have one-third less children in our schools and public health and social services are in ruins. During those 13 years, Tanzania has done everything that the WB and IMF have demanded". And Nyerere passed the question back to the World Bank experts "Why have you failed?"

Africa has paid its dues many times, New Statesmen, Monday 17th April – Kenneth Kaunda speaking at Nyerere tribute.'

Njoki Njorge, Director of 50 Years is Enough speaking to Africa sub-Committee of the US House of Representatives, states "surely the easy talk of taking responsibility for your decisions, of short-term pain for long-term gain, of tightening your belts a little bit more a little bit longer, should begin to sound suspicious after 20 years of the same economic prescriptions...even the World bank's optimistic projections suggest it will take until 2006 merely to return to 1982 (pre-structural adjustment ) levels of per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa". "We know that the more countries pay, the more they seem to owe. So perhaps Africa's march into the 21st Century will not begin by hooking up African village to the Internet, as Mr. Clinton suggested in Uganda, but with the meeting of everyday needs –food, water, health care, shelter, a clean environment, and basic education for all........That march to the future will only truly begin when the multilateral financial institutions and powerful countries like the US get serious about debt relief. And that debt relief must be delinked and disassociated from structural adjustment."

April 13 1999, www.africapolicy.org/docs99/50yr9904.htm

''Never before did mankind have such formidable scientific and technological potential, such extraordinary capacity to produce riches and well-being but never before were disparity and inequity so profound in the world'' Referring to the Earth as ship Castro continued ''85% of the passengers on this ship are crowded together in its dirty hold suffering hunger, diseases and helplessness''. If Cuba has successfully carried out education, health care, culture, science, sports and other programs, which nobody in the world would question, despite four decades of economic blockades, and revalued its currency seven times in the last five years in relation to the US dollar, it has been thanks to its privilege as a non-member of the IMF.''...."It is high time for the Third World to strongly demand the removal of an institution that neither provides stability to the world economy nor works to deliver preventative funds to debtors to avoid their liquidity crisis; it rather protects and rescues creditors''

Address by Dr. l Castro, President of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, at the Opening Session of the Group of 77 South Summit Conference, Havana 12th April

Southern Voices on Growing Inequality and Globalisation

"We were convinced that globalisation would lead to an improvement in the standard of living in developing countries," Mr. Mubarak stated in his opening speech at the G15 Summit "but we have observed that the imbalance in the world economy is increasing instead of decreasing."

G15 leaders attack globalisation, BBC Online, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_79600/796772.stm

''Asymmetries and imbalances have intensified in international economic relations, particularly with regard to international co-operation, even further widening the gap between the developing countries and the industrialised countries.''.

Declaration 11 of the South Summit, Group of 77, Havana, Cuba, 10-14 April 2000.

''We recognise that within the South, there are a group of countries, categorised as LDCs which are at a particular disadvantage in the current phase of globalisation and liberalisation. Despite the efforts they are making.....they continue to be marginalised in the world economy. We urge the international community to take special initiatives for them, particularly in regard to the eradication of poverty, equitable implementation of the WTO Agreements, free access to their exports in the world market, debt cancellation, increased ODA, and incentives for FDI flows to LDCs''. Declaration 31 of the South Summit, Group of 77, Havana, Cuba, 10-14 April 2000

On the final day of Unctad X in Bangkok ( 21/02/00) the OAU and Algeria's president stated that "Africa is being completely marginalised" that Africa had been split away from the flows and processes of development of the rest of the World." Globalisation can only benefit those countries with the material basis and technological foundation to operate", he added, "only they can benefit"..... "Its backwardness in trade is such that it will be utterly left out of the process". Speaking on colonialisation and historical experience the OAU president stated "the international economic order kept African countries as suppliers of raw materials and as markets for manufactured products. By deregulating trade and bringing in competition when the forces in the North and South are so disproportionate, it is obvious that Africa is completely out of the race."

Unctad X, Bangkok 21/03/00

President Bouteflika also noted that at Seattle, Africans participated as if they were "non-concerned observers", the debate took place only between Americans and Europeans. "Globalisation such as it is today profits only countries, which have a material, technological, and technical bias". (speaking at UNCTAD X )

Reported in 'Bouteflika compliments the participating members in the national summit on Africa' www.africapolicy.org/docs00/unct0002.htm )

Pascal Manuel Mocumbi, Mozambique's premier said the first challenge facing Africa was "How can we part of the global picture when we have high poverty and weak institutions? How can we move people earning less than 50 cents a day up from that bracket and then go on to produce?"

Unctad X, Bangkok 21/03/00

Southern Voices on Civil Society Participation in Debt Cancellation

Speaking on HIPC: "Today, no serious person considers it a solution at all"..." If the moral case for debt relief has been won, why should debt cancellation be embittered by programmes that leave workers unemployed and children hungry?"....."Corruption has been, and still is, a problem in Africa, but one that has been abetted by Western governments. In Zambia, we have an active Jubilee 2000 movement calling for "conditionalities from below" as alternative to top-down conditions imposed by Washington. These mechanisms can much better monitor funds released from debt cancellation – if, and when, they ever arrive".

Kenneth Kaunda speaking at the Julius Nyerere Tribute, London, April 2000.

"It will be public opinion and public outrage that will bring about change to cancel the debt"

Kenneth Kaunda, former President of Zambia -P5 Breaking the Chains.

Oticule Pacule, coordinator of the Mozambican Debt Group said: "A solution to the debt crisis is a prerequisite to poverty alleviation and sustainable growth on the continent. African government are prepared to ensure that any freed resources from debt alleviation is directed at the social sectors and at enhancing productive capacities of the most marginalised segments of society. African organisations are prepared to monitor the process to ensure that this occurs. If Northern governments could create the political will to provide the necessary level of debt cancellation we could take an important step closer to eliminating the unacceptable levels of poverty in countries such as Mozambique. The HIPC Initiative reduces unpayable debt; it will not free significant new resources in Mozambique. For that reason it is not the answer" Southern and Eastern African Conference on HIPC and ESAF, Maputo, 31/8-2/9/98

Both donor agencies and the citizens of indebted countries need to be "confident that the money newly available does not go to the purchase of Mercedes Benz for party leaders, building political re-election campaign funds, or projects that benefit only a few", says Zambia's Jubilee 2000. But this can only be accomplished by going beyond simple poverty alleviation to "poverty eradication efforts that builds on a solid basis for the future" based on "people centred development". This, in turn, will only be brought about with '`conditionalities from below, not from above''.

Reported by Peter Henriot in "Will Debt Relief Benefit Zambian Poor" Kicking the Habit P27

"Conditionalities from below" means, first, accountability and transparency. "The Debt campaign of ( Zambian ) civil society states very clearly: no to any debt arrangement, no matter how attractive it might be.........that is not scrupulously accountable to the citizens of Zambia, as well as to donors. The light of publicity, the fire of debate, the sense of sharing, the structures of partnership; all these must be guaranteed in the arrangements for debt relief. No `behind the doors' decisions, no exclusion of key partners".

Henriot ibid

This "means that the conditions for meeting the needs of the poor should be set by local people and institutions within the debtor country, not only by outsider creditors imposing their preferred prescriptions," says Jubilee 2000 Zambia. Creditors should have the right to place only one condition on debtor countries:" establish a debt management mechanism that includes a poverty eradication fund." After that, it is "conditionalities from below."

Kicking the Habit P27

Speaking on the need to construct and International Insolvency Court, Guyana's President Jagdeo stated "It is very important to have an international arbitration process – independent and transparent".

President Bharret Jagdeo speaking to the Jubilee 2000 Latin American Co-ordinator, Liana Cisneros, June 16th 2000.

Southern Views on Governance

In the preamble to the Gauteng Declaration the Jubilee 2000 Southern African Coalitions stated "through SAPs our governments have become more accountable to the elites of the North rather than their own people. We have been denied the right to be active participants in the decision making process of our own development. In this sense we can see how debt has become an instrument of control and domination". We thus demand:-

"The unconditional, immediate and total cancellation of the debt

The immediate termination of the conditions attached to all the internationally designed debt relief mechanisms to tying this to further economic adjustment, and the scrapping of the HIPC Initiative".

Southern African Jubilee Debt Summit, Johannesburg, 21st March 1999, Gauteng Declaration

"The mechanisms of international relations should be directed towards the reduction of inequalities, the elimination of misery and backwardness" which even threatens the principle of collective security. "In reality a new card of the world has been drawn, where a whole continent as Africa is purely and simply erased". In spite of Africa's efforts for a better management of its political, economic and security affairs, they would remain "illusory as long as the continent shall continue to undergo the effects of a world environment contributing more than in the past to worsen its backward movement and its difficulties". In regard to good governance the president wondered whether we could "continue posing good governing as a preliminary to the best dealing with the problems of development, while sapping, by policies of structural adjustment, the minimum of social harmony which supposes good governing".

UNCTAD X, reported in President Bouteflika's speech in favour of a fairer and more interdependent world, www.africapolicy.org/docs00/unct0002.htm

 

Southern Jubilee 2000 Declarations

The Lusaka Declaration: May 19-21 1999.

''In the context of an African Consensus for genuine development - NOT the neo-liberal Washington Context - we endorse the total cancellation of African foreign debt in order that the proceeds got to meet our society's basic human needs and restoring our environment.''

Declaration also stated that ''African civil society realises that Northern Institutions and governments have long dominated and exploited Africa'' and ''calls upon progressive researchers'' so that it can be established ''how much reparations we can legitimately demand''.

Affirmed by African civil societies working on debt from: Burkina Faso, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Cameroon, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, SA, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Gauteng Declaration: March 1999

''The unconditional, immediate and total cancellation of debt'' was demanded by Southern African Jubilee 2000 campaigns at a meeting in Johannesburg on 21/3/99. The Gauteng declaration also demands ''the immediate termination of the conditions attached to all internationally designed debt relief mechanisms tying this to further economic adjustment; and the scrapping of the HIPC Initiative''......''The only conditions we recognise are those that are developed by the popular and representative civil society organisations''.

The conference argued ''Debt slavery, the same system of debt bondage that excludes four firths of the world's population from economic and social development, is a central part of this nightmare''......''The domination of the North over the South has led to conditions which have spawned wars and conflicts in our region that have further exacerbated the levels of poverty, human suffering -and debt bondage''.......''Under these circumstances the debt of Southern Africa is illegitimate and immoral. Yet there is a debt which we do recognise - a moral debt. That is the debt that our governments, the governments of the G7/8, multilaterals and international commercial banks owe for...all the fundamental rights we do not have''.

''We reiterate the call for reparations in the 1993 Aduja Declaration...we believe reparations are long overdue as our initiative to regain control over our destiny and to ensure that the |African holocaust will never occur again''.

The Southern African Debt Summit in Johannesburg was attended by delegates from: Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe Jubilee 200 Afrika and Jubilee 2000 Coalitions from Latin America and Philippines.

Tegucigalpa Declaration

''The debt is unlawful ....as negotiation conditions......denied debtor governments the right of association. ..the message to debtor countries was clear and firm: you negotiate alone, we negotiate on block''.

''Integration and co-ordination of all parties involved, applying an insolvency procedure to indebted countries along the lines of bankruptcy laws existing in countries such as the US which allow insolvent companies to declare themselves bankrupt." Funds released from debt relief ''must be channelled into development programmes '' and that ''the active participation of all groups in society in the design, implementation, follow up and evaluation of the entire process must be guaranteed''....''the participation of civil organisations to guarantee transparency and the availability of information for all citizens".

Tegucigalpa Declaration Jubilee 2000 Latin American and Caribbean Platform. Yes to Life, No to Debt. Members: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Venezuela.

Accra Declaration 16th-19th April 1998

"We participants from Afrika, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America attending the Jubilee 2000 Afrika campaign Launch in Accra, Ghana, from 16-19th April 1998 ..Considering the root-causes of the Debts lie in the History of Slavery and Colonialisation, that the Debt Crisis is a function of the unjust system of International Trade and Investment and of Unaccountable Government demand

1. the immediate and unconditional cancellation of Afrika's external debts

2. that all the gains from Debt Cancellation be re-channelled into social services, in particular, Education, health and Housing

3. the organisation of Civil Society be actively consulted and involved by both lending institutions and Afrikan Governments in loan transactions".

ACCRA Declaration, www.jubilee2000uk.org/accra.html)

Jubilee South - South South Summit Declaration - 21 November 1999

"Leaders and representatives of diverse social movements, popular, religious, professional, and political organizations, and debt coalitions from 35 countries of Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean.. gathered together to advance a common analysis, vision and strategy to seek to overcome the effects and consequences of debt-related domination in the lives and futures of our peoples, countries, and environment."

The External Debt of countries of the South is illegitimate and immoral....

We do not demand relief from the north but restitution and reparation for the profound economic, social, political, cultural and environmental damages wrought upon our countries and peoples through centuries of debt-related colonization and neo-colonization.

Jubilee South campaign initiatives...shall serve the following Strategic Goals and Direction:

Full Jubilee South Declaration can be found at http://www.jubileesouth.net/summit/19991121/declaration_en.html


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