About Di Digest | Back Issues | Mailing List | Email DI | On Line Features

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | LitScan TrendWatch

2.	'Jubilee 2000'
	A campaign to end third world debt is going global and reaching out to the grass-roots in a big way. Citizens everywhere are being asked to make the plight of the world's poorest people a central feature of their domestic political landscapes. In the world's 37 poorest countries, spending per person has gone down 50% on health and 25% on education in recent decades. Over half a million children die each year because of cutbacks to health services. Africa now spends four times more on interest on its loans than on healthcare. These are just some of the facts and figures the growing campaign wants people to know as they prepare to ring in the year 2000. Jubilee 2000, based in London, aims to promote broad understanding among people in creditor countries that the responsibility for high-levels of indebtedness rests as much with them as with debtor countries. It hopes to build enough support among people in rich countries for the one-off cancellation of unpayable debt owed by the planet's billion poorest people. Backing for the campaign comes from a host of church, labour, refugee, women's and anti-racist organizations. The list includes Christian Aid and Tearfund (with wide multi-denominational endorsement) and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions which represents 125 million workers in 137 countries. In order to pressure politicians in creditor countries to find ways to ease their countries' claims on the destitute in far away lands, Jubilee is trying to build a groundswell of public opinion using the networking power of the Internet, as well as more traditional approaches like petitions, lobbying and letter writing. A major focus is an international petition to be presented at the 1999 G7 Summit in Germany, where the major creditor countries will converge. In the 'Debt Cutters Handbook', Jubilee is proposing a few key ways to make debt relief a reality – by having both creditor and debtor countries nominate a small 'Committees of Arbitrators', including at least two members of civil society, to oversee the process and work out the precise terms of debt remission for each debtor country; by making implementation the responsibility of debtor countries instead of creditors; and by ensuring transparency and openness. On April 6, 1997 – a thousand days before the millenium – Jubilee started a clock ticking in Central London to count down the days that remain. Can Jubilee succeed where many other campaigns have failed? The problem of international debt has been around for a long time and is enormous, but the organizers seem undaunted. Luminaries like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the writer Susan George have put their names behind the cause. Let's hope the campaign continues to attract friends in high places, both at home and beyond. [campaigning for a debt-free start to the new millennium]
	Moved by the Spirit More and more, spiritual groups and organizations are becoming hotbeds of activism for the transition of societies toward sustainable development. Churches and temples, mosques and synagogues are natural places for uniting people in a common cause. When spiritual communities direct their energy toward achieving sustainability, they can move mountains. Groups like Jubilee 2000 and Christian Aid are showing the way. Jubilee 2000 for instance is taking its call from the Old Testament of Judaeo-Christian tradition in which 'jubilee' meant 'the forgiveness of debts, the righting of wrongs and the renewal of society'. Watch for a special upcoming issue of Developing Ideas digest exploring the theme of spirituality and sustainability.
	Jubilee 2000 n. campaign to cancel unpayable debts owed by world's poorest people
	Watkins, Kevin. The Oxfam Poverty Report. Oxford, GB: Oxfam, 1995. 250p
Virtual Ideas	Get in contact with Jubilee 2000 email: j2000@gn.apc.org Visit their homepage Articles on debt and associated problems