wfn.org | CWSW Endorses Debt Forgiveness

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Internet: news@ncccusa.org

NCC3/20/98                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CWS ENDORSES THIRD WORLD DEBT FORGIVENESS CAMPAIGN

SAN FRANCISCO, March 18 -- Reaffirming its commitment 
to redress inequities between rich and poor, the Church 
World Service and Witness Unit of the National Council 
of Churches is supporting a growing grass-roots effort 
to cancel unsustainable Third World debt.

During its regular spring meeting here, the CWSW Unit 
Committee endorsed a campaign by Jubilee 2000, a 
worldwide movement to cancel international debt by the 
new millennium; urged the U.S. government to use its 
leadership to support debt cancellation, and asked the 
NCC as a whole along with its 34 member communions to 
join the Jubilee 2000 campaign.  CWSW is the NCC's 
humanitarian response ministry.

The campaign, which is supported by a growing number 
of faith-based groups and non-governmental 
organizations, recalls the biblical concept of Jubilee -
- a time when slaves were set free, debts were canceled, 
land returned to landless families, and a new beginning 
created for people whose lives had been degraded by 
indebtedness..

"Jubilee symbolizes a fresh start for the poor and 
reestablishes justice and equity in the world," said 
Joan Harper, who chairs the Office of Justice and Peace 
of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  

The need for a new Jubilee is dire in the world's 
poorest countries, Harper told the CWSW Unit Committee. 
Debt to international lending agencies such as the World 
Bank and the International Monetary Fund stifles 
economic development and diverts scarce economic 
resources from health care, education and other socially 
beneficial programs. In Uganda, for example, the 
government spends $3.51 per capita on education, but it 
spends $17 on debt repayment, she said.

Much of the debt resulted from ill-conceived 
development projects during the 1970s and 1980s, flawed 
policies applied to recipient countries in exchange for 
assistance, and short-sighted decisions of the nations' 
leaders. Much of the borrowing benefited elites, but 
repaying the debt falls upon the most impoverished 
members of society. At least 1 billion people are 
saddled with such debt to the West, which translates 
into $420 per person.
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