Jubilee Plus is outraged by the UK Government’s decision to go ahead with the sale of a $40m military air traffic control system to Tanzania.  

Tanzania is one of only four countries to have passed through all the hoops of the enhanced HIPC initiative, and received debt relief totalling $2,206bn, in net present value terms, at the end of last month. But our analysis shows that her debt remains unsustainable, even if measured by the World Bank’s own, deeply flawed, criteria. Adding a further $40m of debt – whose major justification is to protect 250 jobs on the Isle of Wight – will only add to the burden on Tanzania’s meagre revenues. 

According to Ann Pettifor, head of the Jubilee Plus programme, ‘the case of the sale of the military air traffic control system to Tanzania nicely encapsulates the injustice that lies at the heart of the international lending system. Britain is lending to a very poor country to defend her own jobs and industries, and transferring the cost to the poor. While we defend the UK government’s right to defend jobs in the UK, this should not be done on the backs of the poor.’