Hi John,
There's been a massive response to the call to cancel debts to help fight coronavirus in the global south.
More than 100 organisations around the world have backed the campaign, and hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions in many countries. Plus, high-profile figures from former prime ministers to the Pope have started to speak up in support.
Across Africa, Asia and Latin America, low-income countries urgently need to scale up their health spending in the face of this pandemic. But they’re due to spend over $40 billion on debt payments in 2020 alone. This is money that could be used now to save lives as this terrible virus continues to spread.
In Mali, the country has 20 ventilators for a population of 19 million. In Haiti, there are 64 ventilators to cover 11 million people. Kenya has 130 beds in intensive care units, for 50 million people. We have 4,000 ICUs in the UK – and we all know it’s not enough.
Tomorrow, G20 finance ministers are holding a virtual meeting as part of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings this week. That’s why today, we’re joining the Jubilee Debt Campaign and allies from across the world in a day of action to #CancelTheDebt.
Can you help by signing our petition to the UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, calling for debt cancellation now?
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If you're on Twitter, you can also help by tweeting the Chancellor today:
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Our pressure has already forced powerful lenders to begin discussing the debt burden. Yesterday’s Financial Times reports that the G20 are considering a six or nine-month moratorium on debt repayments, while options for further ‘debt relief’ are discussed. And last night the IMF announced an initial $500 million of debt payments would be covered for 25 of the poorest nations, via contributions from countries including the UK.
But so far the response falls vastly short of the scale of the crisis. Oxfam has estimated that the pandemic could plunge half a billion people into poverty, undoing many of the gains of the last decade or more. Yet the IMF and World Bank have not committed any of their own funds to cancellation, even though a large share of the debts are owed to them. And private creditors and some governments are pushing for debt payments to only be postponed, not cancelled, despite the massive economic shock debtor countries face. We need more than token measures.
That’s why it’s important to step up our campaign today. When we’ve won debt cancellation in the past, we’ve had to push powerful governments, and the global institutions they control, every step of the way. Now that we’ve put debt on the agenda, we need them to know we’re not going to ease off. Please can you sign the petition to the UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, now?
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If you're on Twitter, you can also help by tweeting the Chancellor today:
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Together with allies, let's keep the pressure up at the start of this vital week for our campaign.
Thank you,
Jonathan Stevenson
Campaigner at Global Justice Now
MORE INFO
[1] Call for debt relief for world’s poorest nations, 7 April 2020, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52178968
[2] Global leaders urge G20 to tackle twin health and economic crises, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/coronavirus-global-leaders-urge-g20-to-tackle-twin-health-and-economic-crises
[3] Coronavirus could push half a billion people into poverty, Oxfam warns, 9 April 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/coronavirus-could-push-half-a-billion-people-into-poverty-oxfam-warns
[4] Coronavirus: Pope Francis calls for debt relief and end to sanctions, 12 April 2020, https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/12/coronavirus-pope-francis-calls-for-debt-relief-and-end-to-sanctions
[5] Pressure grows for developing world debt relief over coronavirus, 12 April 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/12/pressure-grows-for-developing-world-debt-relief-over-coronavirus
[6] G20 nations close in on debt deal for poor countries, 13 April 2020, https://www.ft.com/content/30321fc4-e77c-4688-8d87-ef344108ed6b
[7] IMF to provide debt relief to help 25 countries address pandemic, 13 April 2020, https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-imf-world-bank-debt/imf-to-provide-debt-relief-for-25-countries-to-help-them-address-pandemic-idUKKCN21V21O
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