wfn.org | Finance ministers asked for debt relief

[Theo and Ruth Coggin <coggin@sn.apc.org>]

^From Theo Coggin, Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday 17 February 1998
Tel: +2711-648-5461  /  +2711-487-0026
e-mail: coggin@sn.apc.org

Thirteen of the most influential religious leaders in the world have
called on the finance ministers of the richest nations, meeting in
London this week, to make a commitment to increased debt relief for the
poorest countries by the turn of the century.

They said in a statement today (Tuesday 17 February) that substantial
debt relief would begin to end the downward spiral of economic
degradation in developing countries, ‘and give hope in the new
millennium to millions of people.’

Amongst the signatories are the Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa,,
the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Most Revd George Carey, the Chief Rabbi of Britain, Dr Jonathan Sachs,
the Rt Revd Theodore McCarrick, of the Catholic Bishops Conference in
the USA, and the President of the British Methodist Conference, the Revd
Dr John Taylor.

In their statement, the religious leaders say that they are aware that
international financial institutions are already implementing a
programme of debt relief - the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
Initiative.

‘However, we are concerned by apparent delays in implementing this
initiative, and by the dilution of its original promise to provide the
most indebted countries with ‘the possibility of exiting’ from severe
indebtedness.’

Archbishop Ndungane said that the statement was an illustration of the
growing support by a wide cross section of influential leaders in the
world to make a new start to the world’s economy, coinciding with the
new century.

In their statement, the religious leaders noted that the 1997 Human
Development Report of the UNDP said that governments in Africa alone,
relieved of their debt repayments, could use the funds released to ‘save
the lives of about 21-million children by 2000’.

They added: ‘We call on finance ministers to give hope to the poorest
people of Africa and other indebted nations by increasing debt relief by
the year 2000, as a significant contribution to the overall eradication
of poverty.’