Support the Jubilee Act
Write or call Congress now.
2007 is the Sabbath Year; seven years after the historic Jubilee 2000 campaign brought the issue of crushing international debt onto the agenda of world leaders. The Sabbath Year is an opportunity to reflect on the life-saving impacts of debt cancellation provided in 1999 and again in 2005 while addressing the unfinished agenda on international debt. As part of the Sabbath Year, Jubilee USA Network is calling on Congress to pass the Jubilee Act H.R.2634. This legislation will improve lending behavior and expand debt cancellation, a proven means of fighting poverty, to all the impoverished countries that need it to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
Debt costs lives. In the world's most impoverished countries, majorities do not have access to clean water, adequate housing or basic health care. Impoverished countries around the world currently pay debt service to wealthy nations and institutions at the expense of providing these basic services to their citizens. Every day 8,000 people die from HIV/AIDS, 70 percent of them in African countries. At the same time, most African countries spend more on debt payments than on health care. Broader debt cancellation is needed to meet the MDGs, targets agreed upon by world leaders to halve extreme poverty by 2015.
The Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation H.R.2634 has been introduced in the House of Representatives. This legislation calls for more transparent and responsible behavior by creditors as well as expended debt cancellation for all 67 countries that need it to meet the MDGs, without imposing harmful economic conditions. Only 40 countries are eligible under current debt relief schemes, and of those 40, only 20 have actually had their debts cancelled. Members of the Jubilee USA Network are calling on Members of Congress in the House to support improved creditor behavior and debt cancellation in impoverished countries by co-sponsoring the Jubilee Act. The Jubilee Act addresses the unfinished agenda on debt.
The Jubilee Act: Cancels impoverished country debt; removes economic conditionalities from the cancellation process; mandates transparency and accountability from governments and international financial institutions; and moves forward with more responsible lending practices.
If you have not urged your member of Congress to sponsor the Jubilee Act H.R.2634, take two minutes, go to the Presbyterian Action Center and call your representative or send an email or fax to your member of congress.
I urge you to continue the fight against global poverty. This year marks the halfway point to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), global commitments that would cut extreme poverty in half by 2015. Yet, as we draw closer to the halfway point, we remain very far from meeting these goals.
I urge you to support the Jubilee Act, HR 2634. This legislation will promote more responsible lending, and cancel the debts of all impoverished countries that require it to meet the MDGs, without harmful economic policy conditions attached. Broader debt cancellation would free up urgently needed resources for health care, education, and clean water. Conditionalities, such as those requiring impoverished countries to privatize much-needed resources or freeze all hiring and salaries for health care workers, only further entrench these countries in poverty.
Already countries benefiting from 100 percent debt cancellation have put these funds towards poverty alleviation:
- In Burundi, elimination of school fees in 2005 allowed an additional 300,000 children to enroll.
- In Zambia, 4,500 new teachers have been hired and fees for rural healthcare have been abolished.
- In Tanzania, more than 31,000 new classrooms were built and net enrollment rose by almost 30 percent in 2003.
- In Burkina Faso, debt relief savings have been targeted to fight AIDS, improve education, and provide access to safe drinking water.
While we commend the United States and other G-8 leaders for taking action in 2005 to cancel the debts of 20 impoverished countries, still far too many nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have been left out of the 2005 agreement and still the harmful IMF and World Bank policy conditions remain. The Jubilee Act will address this unfinished agenda on debt!
Join in observing the Sabbath Year, seven years after the historic Jubilee 2000 campaign. In the 2007 Sabbath Year, people of faith and conscience will join to build on these success stories and work for the jubilee vision of right relations and an end to unjust debt and global poverty.
Send a message to your member of Congress!
In 1998, the General Assembly called upon presbyteries and congregations to support the goals of Jubilee 2000 by sending statements of support to key policy makers in the U.S. government and multilateral lending agencies. The resolution endorsed and supported the "definitive cancellation of international debt in situations where countries with high levels of human need and environmental distress are unable to meet the needs of their people … in a way that benefits ordinary people and facilitates their participation in the processes of … debt relief." (Minutes, 1998, p. 676). |
