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Africa Policy E-Journal
Africa: Debt and AIDS Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information service provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa). Find more information for action for Africa at http://www.africaaction.org +++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide SUMMARY CONTENTS: This posting contains (1) from Africa Action, a summary critique of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt initiative and (2) calls for action by African Religious Leaders from 30 countries, from a meeting on June 9-12 in Nairobi, Kenya, organized by the World Conference of Religions for Peace and the Hope for African Children Initiative. In addition to making a strong statement against stigma and making their own commitments to new action, the Religious Leaders called on African governments to immediately cease paying debt service to international financial institutions, and on rich countries to cancel Africa's debt as well as to provide adequate funding for the Global AIDS Fund. For more info on the Nairobi meeting, including a summary press release with quotes from Christian and Muslim leaders, see http://www.hopeforafricanchildren.org
For a statement by Africa Action and other groups to the G7 Finance
Ministers meeting this weekend in Halifax, see +++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Africa Action Note When the leaders of the world's richest countries meet for the annual G8 summit in Canada later this month, they will devote unprecedented attention to a discussion of Africa's development challenges. At the top of their agenda should be a commitment to addressing the overwhelming burden of the continent's foreign debt. Africa's debt remains the single largest obstacle to poverty reduction efforts and the fight against HIV/AIDS. Recent reports from the World Bank reveal that the current debt relief plan, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, has failed to resolve the debt crisis even by its own measure. While Africa Action notes the new legislative initiative in The U.S. Congress that seeks to further reduce the debt stock of HIPC countries ("Debt Relief Enhancement Act of 2002" - S.2210 and H.R. 4524), we believe that the time has come for an immediate moratorium on poor country debt payments to lay the foundation for full debt cancellation. As the critique below details, the HIPC Initiative cannot be considered a credible framework for resolving the debt crisis. This year's Africa focus at the G8 summit demands nothing less than a new commitment to the cancellation of Africa's unsustainable and illegitimate foreign debts.
Africa Action Critique of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative - June 2002 The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, the current international debt relief framework, poses as a scheme to reduce the debt of the world's most impoverished countries to "sustainable" levels. Launched in 1996 by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), HIPC is the first comprehensive debt relief plan integrating all bilateral, multilateral and private creditors in one framework. The initiative aims to reduce the amount of debt owed by eligible countries in order to prevent them from defaulting on their outstanding loans. Eligibility is determined by the ratio of a country's debt to the value of its exports, and by a country's commitment to following economic policy prescriptions dictated by the World Bank and IMF. Of the 42 countries selected by the World Bank and IMF as potential recipients of HIPC debt relief, 34 are in sub-Saharan Africa. Neither the original HIPC Initiative, nor the "enhanced" version introduced in 1999, has succeeded in resolving Africa's debt crisis. The 22 African countries that have so far qualified to receive some relief are still required to pay almost $2 billion each year in debt repayments to wealthy creditor countries and institutions, mainly to the World Bank and IMF themselves. African countries' efforts to address urgent domestic priorities, from poverty reduction to the fight against HIV/AIDS, continue to be undermined by their persistent debt burden. Most African governments still spend up to three times more on debt repayments than on health care for their own people. The World Bank claims that almost $35 billion in debt relief has already been committed through the HIPC framework. It states that the amount of debt held by qualifying countries is being reduced by up to one-third. However, the practical effect of this is minimal when most of this debt was not being repaid anyway, and when the remaining debt burden continues to be overwhelming. The World Bank and IMF's estimates of the amount of savings being released to countries through HIPC are based on grossly unrealistic assumptions of economic growth and increased exports. In actual fact, export growth for HIPC countries has been far less than what the World Bank and IMF have predicted. In 2001 alone, it was less than half of what had been projected. Even by the World Bank's own measure, 31 of the 42 HIPC countries are not on track for reaching "sustainable" debt levels through this process. According to HIPC, "sustainable" debt represents the maximum amount debtor countries can repay without defaulting. Thus, while the HIPC framework claims to be concerned with easing the debt burden of the world's poorest countries, it is actually designed and controlled by creditors to extract the maximum possible in debt repayments. It is, in effect, mainly writing off debt that was not being paid in any case. The initiative's focus on purely economic criteria in assessing a country's debt burden betrays an utter lack of concern for human development and for the capacity of poor countries to meet the needs of their own people. The emphasis is on ensuring that creditors recover as much debt as can be squeezed from these countries. HIPC permits creditors to retain leverage over indebted African countries while offering the veneer of concern for the plight of these countries. The economic policy conditions attached to the HIPC process mirror the same prescriptions that have been imposed by the World Bank and IMF on African countries for the past two decades, with disastrous results. Although these are now repackaged to reflect a regard for "poverty reduction," their imposition is no less inappropriate. Tying debt relief to conditions determined by creditors undermines African priorities and initiatives and affords creditors an inordinate degree of control over the running of African countries. It is a matter for African governments to determine their own approaches to poverty reduction, in consultation with civil society groups and other partners - not to have these prescribed to them by external powers. It is outrageous that creditors should seek to stipulate to African governments how they must spend any savings that are received from debt relief. Most importantly, the HIPC Initiative obfuscates the illegitimacy of most of Africa's debt. As such, it fundamentally undermines the strong imperative for debt cancellation. Many of the loans being repaid by African countries today were disbursed for strategic purposes, to prop up repressive and corrupt regimes during the Cold War. They were given for failed and grandiose projects pushed by creditors, most of which did not benefit Africa's people. Yet Africa's people are today expected to pick up the tab. They are required to sacrifice their own health and education to ensure that these debts are repaid to wealthy creditors. Not only does the HIPC Initiative fail to acknowledge the illegitimacy of much of these debts, it actually sanctions the continued exploitation of indebted countries by rich creditor nations and institutions. As African countries continue to be drained of desperately needed resources, the real question should be "who owes whom?" Africa's burden of illegitimate foreign debt represents the single largest obstacle to the continent's development. Six years after the introduction of HIPC, African countries are still forced to spend almost $15 billion each year repaying external debts. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has joined African leaders in declaring HIPC to be inadequate and calling for a bolder approach to addressing the debt crisis. The Secretary General has urged a moratorium on international debt payments until such time as an international arbitration panel has determined a just resolution. Such a resolution must involve debtors and independent experts as well as creditors, and must include indebted African countries, such as Nigeria and South Africa, that are excluded from eligibility for the HIPC plan. Further tinkering with the HIPC framework can only be a shell game. If African efforts to reduce poverty and address the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS are to be successful, Africa's debt must be canceled outright.
African Religious Leaders CALL FOR ACTION BY AFRICAN RELIGIOUS LEADERS
CALL FOR ACTION BY AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS
CALL FOR ACTION BY G8 GOVERNMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, AND THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
AFRICAN RELIGIOUS LEADERS ASSEMBLY ON CHILDREN AND HIV/AIDS 9-12 June 2002, Nairobi Kenya FINAL DECLARATION Children in Africa are being crushed by HIV/AIDS. More than 14 million have lost one or both parents. Many are sick, suffering cruel deprivations, and are frightened and alone in a world where no one seems to care. Worse, there is yet another burden. These children are stigmatized, made to feel ashamed by the source of their suffering, HIV/AIDS. We men and women, senior representatives of Afric's religious communities, have come to Nairobi from 30 countries to confront the terrible impact that HIV/AIDS is having on our children and their families. All of our religious communities are living with HIV/AIDS, and we share the pain of all those who suffer from its effects. Called by and respectful of our different religious traditions, we stand united on two fronts: to protect and care for children impacted by HIV/AIDS, and to denounce and fight the heavy yoke of stigma that our children are forced to carry. We proclaim the fundamental dignity of every child rooted in the sacred origin of life. Our religious traditions compel us to act on behalf of children affected by HIV/AIDS. Many elements of African culture such as the concepts of UBUNTU and HARAMBEE inspire us to pull together as communities to confront problems that deny a fullness of life for all, especially those affected by HIV/AIDS. We must lead efforts to change attitudes, adopt policies, and devote resources to protect our children, insuring that all vulnerable children, in particular girls, receive their rightful share of all resources – educational, medical and spiritual. We must work to help them build a future free from the scourge of AIDS. Our religious traditions teach us that human sexuality is a gift from the Creator, and that we must accept the responsibilities of this gift. We recognize that HIV/AIDS is a problem that compels us to re-examine our traditions for guidance. It is our duty as religious leaders to lead the fight against HIV/AIDS basing our actions on these new understandings. All people have the right to information on how the spread of the disease can be stopped. With conviction, concern and compassion, we commit ourselves and urge our believers to work to stop the spread of this disease in ways respectful of conscience as it is informed by our religious beliefs. Our capacities for caring for children impacted by HIV/AID are substantial. From the smallest village to the largest city, at district, national, and international levels, religious organizations offer the largest social infrastructure to provide care and support, to share information, and to mobilize community responses. Our communities are already on the front lines in responding to the devastating impact of the pandemic. Fully 90% of HIV/AIDS care workers in Africa are women of faith, and we gratefully recognize and commend their efforts. We acknowledge that we have not fully unleashed our communities’ rich assets for action. Our messages have not always been consistent and our voices have not always been heard. We have been reluctant to speak openly about HIV/AIDS. Too often our own ignorance, fear and denial have held us back as teachers about HIV/AIDS in our communities. Moreover, many of our communities' capacities for positive action to care for our children have not yet been adequately engaged. We pledge to make the fight against HIV/AIDS and its impact on children, young people and families a priority. We commit to:
Religious communities have an essential role to play, but we cannot succeed alone. We commit to working in partnerships with all sectors of our societies in providing the necessary care for our children. In particular, we call on our governmental leaders to fulfill the political, financial and goodwill commitments they made at the Abuja Summit and to give greater attention to the particular needs of children. We urge them to review NEPAD to insure it appropriately addresses HIV/AIDS and its impact on children and families. Finally, we urge our governments to place a priority on funding community based and led efforts. We pledge our readiness to work with them to meet these goals. 14 million orphans is more than an African crisis; it is a disaster for the human family. In practical terms, partnership with the rest of the world is needed, in moral terms it is required. We appeal to the international community, particularly wealthy nations, to provide the external resources that are needed to overcome this scourge. Their capacity to make a life or death difference on so many children impacted by AIDS is their moral responsibility to do so. They must honor their commitments to increase HIV/AIDS funding, in particular meeting the $7-10 billion goal set for the Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria. In addition, we call on them to ensure that Africans suffering from HIV/AIDS have access to essential medications. HIV/AIDS is not just a health issue, but a development issue as well. Nations need to honor their pledges and commitments both for debt relief and for HIV/AIDS funds. We call on them to immediately cancel outstanding debt. We urge the G-8 governments to deliver additional, substantial, tangible resources when they meet next week in Canada. We value the Hope for African Children Initiative (HACI) because only a dynamic expanding partnership of all stakeholders can address the needs of our children. HACI brings together religious communities, other civil society groups, international development agencies, governments and intergovernmental agencies as partners, each contributing in own essential strengths. Within HACI, we look forward to working with the World Conference on Religion and Peace to expand the work being done in our local communities to care for children. As people of faith, we share in the suffering of all those affected and infected by HIV/AIDS, but we remain filled with hope. AIDS need not be a death sentence. Today, in communities across this continent people are finding ways to meet the needs of children and families through counseling, education, treatment, transition planning, prevention, and many other interventions. We have increased knowledge of what works. Our challenge is to find ways to ensure that every child victimized by this disease receives the needed care. We pledge our energy and resources to achieve this goal. With the help of the Divine, we will see a world free of HIV/AIDS where every child has hope for the future.
Documents previously distributed in the e-journal are
available on the Africa Action website: To be added to or dropped from the e-journal subscription list, write to e-journal@africaaction.org. For more information about reposted material, please contact directly the source mentioned in the posting.
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Africa Policy E-Journal
