Jubilee Scotland is launching an international debt wiki site. This will connect the entire debt campaign community in one place on-line to share and capture knowledge, experiences, and hopefully ideas and projects.
For campaigners in Scotland the wiki will be a place to find out about and get involved with debt campaigns happening around the world, and also to strengthen our own campaigns.
Below are some developments from the world of global debt over the past few months. The Scottish Government launched its White Paper ‘Scotland’s Future’ on the 26th November. In this, debt relief is highlighted as a priority for international development, with the statement: “The Scottish Government will give careful consideration to the question of ‘unjust’ […]
James Picardo, Campaign Director at Jubilee Scotland, spoke as part of the ‘Global Challenges’ series of events hosted by Edinburgh University. Here is what he said: Economics on the one hand, and justice and human rights issues on the other hand, are often discussed as separate phenomena; as ways of looking at the world that […]
On the 15th of December 2008 Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa took the unprecedented step of declaring that Ecuador would stop paying interest on commercial bonds owed by the government on the basis that they were ‘obviously immoral and illegitimate’. The decision came as a result of a comprehensive debt audit for which Ecuadorian civil society […]
What was the value of Malawi’s debt cancellation (received in September 2006)? If Malawi had received its debt relief with no hidden reductions and cuts, it would have had $101 million extra per annum free in its budget (the UK, in comparison, gave $180 million in 2006: SID, table 16.2). What it has really had […]
Kusfiardi’s last engagement was on Thursday the 5th of June, when we went with our colleague Sarah Williams from Jubilee Debt Campaign to meet officials from the Export Credit Guarantee Department, the UK government department who ensured – and are currently collecting repayments for – the bad loans that are the focus of our campaign. […]
Previously we examined the role of the Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD) and its role as the major UK government debt generator. Cornelia Trogmann here turns the spotlight on another lender funded by the UK government. The European Investment Bank (EIB) The European Investment Bank was established in 1958 as the long-term lending institution of […]
The UK government’s bilateral debt relief policy is largely made up of cancelling debt owed to the ECGD. In fact about 95% of bilateral debt owed to the UK is through the ECGD. Most of the ECGD debt cancellation that occurs is through the HIPC initiative. HIPC only includes countries that qualify as having ‘unsustainable […]
Former Indonesian President’s death must trigger cancellation of illegitimate debts Jubilee Debt Campaign, Jubilee Scotland and the Anti-Debt Coalition Indonesia are calling on the UK government to cancel £525 million of illegitimate debt owed by Indonesia from loans made to former President Suharto, who died on Sunday 27th January Much of Indonesia’s debt to the […]
Jubilee Scotland is currently trying to convince the UK government to cancel the >£500 million it’s owed by Indonesia. This is a small goal within a much broader international objective, which is to promote the doctrine of ‘odious debt’. ‘Odious debt’ is a concept which enjoys some international credibility, but not nearly enough! Put simply, […]
It’s general knowledge that the UK’s vast increase in development aid (ODA) from 05-07 consists largely of Nigeria’s debt buy-back. Net UK ODA increased by £2.5 billion 04-06, of which Nigeria’s debt cancellation counted for £1.7 billion. (Net ODA in 04 was £4.3 billion, in 06 it was £6.8 billion, as set out in DFID’s […]