Here is some encouraging words from the DATA.org website. This is a few weeks old and some of you may have been keeping up with this stuff better than I have lately. If not, please do read this and be excited. I believe that Debt cancellation is a huge start to helping end extreme poverty. I am not an economist and don't understand too much about economics but I try.
I have been reading "The End of Poverty" by Jeffery Sachs and I would highly reccommend it to anyone wanting to better understand how we can help the poorest of the poor. Anyways, here is the article...enjoy and feel free to debate the topic in the comment section.
cheers, ben
12.21.05
IMF ANNOUNCES 100% DEBT CANCELLATION FOR 19 COUNTRIES
IMF Announces 100% Debt Cancellation for 19 Countries
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today (21 December 2005) announced the first group of countries eligible for 100% debt cancellation relief following this summer’s G8 Africa Summit in Gleneagles.
The 19 countries that qualify as a result of today’s announcement are: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
REACTION FROM JAMIE DRUMMOND, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DATA (debt AIDS trade Africa):
“We are relieved that debt relief has finally turned into debt cancellation, and that justice has prevailed for this first phase of cancellation of repressive multilateral debts. This is but a modest down payment on what needs to come, but we are now one step closer to realizing the promises of the world’s richest countries at the G8 Africa Summit this summer. In 2006, many more of the 2005 promises must be kept.
Much has been made of Bono’s role in debt cancellation this year, but the true heroes are the millions of campaigners around the world who demanded more for those with less from their leaders, including the hundreds of artists who took part in the Live 8 concerts around the globe.
Let us not, however, rest here. The road to justice will be a long one. The G8 also promised additional $25 billion in aid for Africa from the G8 nations, education for all and AIDS drugs for nearly all, targeted efforts to beat back malaria, as well as a major overhaul of our trade system to level the playing field and allow the poorest to earn their way out of extreme poverty with dignity.”
On IMF conditionality: “Our assistance must always be delivered in a way that best helps people on the ground beat poverty. We cannot attach strings to it which are really about opening their markets to our products or micromanaging their economies to suit our narrowly defined ends. Those approaches are outdated, they don’t work, and we must together move on from paternalism to partnership with African and other developing nations. Beating back on IMF austerity measures is a key part of this new emerging paradigm of partnership."
