JDC NEWS ROUNDUP, FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2002

www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk
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"HIPC is Not Delivering", Declare African Debt Campaigns

Meeting recently in Lusaka, Zambia, south and east African debt campaign networks, together with partners from the North (including JDC), declared that HIPC is failing to meet the needs of the poor. The African campaigns called for debt cancellation under HIPC to refocussed on meeting the UN's 2015 Millennium Development Goals, rather than meeting so-called "sustainable" debt service.

The conference, which took place from 7-8 October made the following specific calls:

"To the International Financial Institutions and Creditor Countries:

* Be responsible and honest enough to admit that HIPC in its present form is not meeting the objectives for which it was established, namely, to achieve "a robust exit from unsustainable debt."
* Be ready to move to alternative approaches that tie the sustainability of debt to the ability of governments to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) endorsed by the international community.
* Recognise that debt cancellation is in fact the fastest and most effective way of financing poverty eradication programmes.

"To Debt Campaigns in the North:

*Do not let your governments and your citizenry get distracted from the goal of debt cancellation, since the debt problem has not been solved and is still the major block to sustainable development that enables poverty eradication.
*Push your governments to push the World Bank and IMF on whose Boards they sit to deliver debt cancellation that focuses on debt sustainability based on the achievement of the MDGs.
*Advocate for an independent, fair and transparent arbitration system that ensures just debt solutions that must be accepted by all creditors and debtors.
*Keep close contact with Jubilee partners in the South so that our concerns and issues are effectively represented in your campaigns.

"To African Governments:

*Acknowledge that the current HIPC initiative is not only not sustainable but also is not working to promote the well being of the majority of our people.
*Improve your negotiating capacities in order to move away from reacting to foreign proposals toward setting initiatives to protect our national priorities.
*Put in place transparent, accountable and participative mechanisms to assure that any available debt relief goes to poverty eradication programmes and safeguards against future irresponsible borrowing patterns.
*Be readily open to listen to civil society's experience and analysis so that our national programmes will have true ownership.

"To African Jubilee Partners:

*Renew our motivations to be involved in this debt cancellation campaign on the basis of our commitment to the poor in our midst.
*Recommit ourselves to a debt cancellation campaign that mobilizes people in the widest sense to demand the justice of debt cancellation.
*Cooperate with each other more effectively with information and resource sharing.
*Demand that our governments put in place transparent, accountable and participative mechanisms to assure that any available debt relief does go to our PRSPs or other poverty eradication programmes.
*Commit ourselves to the hard analysis that demonstrates that the current HIPC arrangements are not adequately working in our countries.
*Pledge ourselves to monitor our fulfillment of our plans, with specific evaluation in six months."

[Countries represented: Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, South Africa, Uganda, South Africa, Belgium, United Kingdom, Brazil.]

Visit the Jubilee Zambia website to read the full press release: http://www.jctr.org.zm/jubilee-zambia.htm