Debt Cancelled
18 countries will see $40 Billion in debts cancelled, due to a plan proposed by US and UK representatives to G-8 finance ministers. The Post has it:
Most are in Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Four others -- Bolivia, Guyana, Honduras and Nicaragua -- are in Latin America. Another nine African nations are likely to qualify soon, once they satisfy IMF and World Bank requirements for improving their governance and economic policies. Another 11 countries could also benefit eventually.
I'm still looking into this, so no opinion yet on whether this is as good as it sounds. But it definitely sounds like some of the best news I've heard in years, and a huge victory for debt activists.
... Thoughts:
Too few countries - many more will need cancellation, especially with the looming AIDS pandemic threatening to spread well beyond Africa. Important debtors are left off the list.
Sources I'd heard were right about the US favoring the use of IMF funds to cancel the debt, a move that may have endangered the organization's clout. Many activists I know were solidly behind such a solution, but the one worked out, involving increased rich country contributions to the Fund, seems a good one. With the John Bolton nomination to the UN, fears of increased US unilateralism seem real.
Most are in Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Four others -- Bolivia, Guyana, Honduras and Nicaragua -- are in Latin America. Another nine African nations are likely to qualify soon, once they satisfy IMF and World Bank requirements for improving their governance and economic policies. Another 11 countries could also benefit eventually.
I'm still looking into this, so no opinion yet on whether this is as good as it sounds. But it definitely sounds like some of the best news I've heard in years, and a huge victory for debt activists.
... Thoughts:
Too few countries - many more will need cancellation, especially with the looming AIDS pandemic threatening to spread well beyond Africa. Important debtors are left off the list.
Sources I'd heard were right about the US favoring the use of IMF funds to cancel the debt, a move that may have endangered the organization's clout. Many activists I know were solidly behind such a solution, but the one worked out, involving increased rich country contributions to the Fund, seems a good one. With the John Bolton nomination to the UN, fears of increased US unilateralism seem real.
posted by onlooker at 10:01 AM
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