So how has the G20 done this year in keeping their commitments to the world’s poorest? Well, according to Jubilee, not too great: a “D” in their report card. According to Melinda, the G20 has made “shockingly little progress”, primarily because the G20 a) is “unaccountable to affected communities” b) has “little political will to deliver on commitments” and c) is actually “contributing to a renewed debt crisis”.

You can read more about the G20′s barely passing grade here, and take action here.

As the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, sometimes it seems as if every effort by Haiti to move forward is met with a setback. The earthquake that struck Haiti last week is another terrible example of this.

But there is a way we can help – by addressing Haiti’s debt.

Haiti’s debt story begins with the country’s birth. After winning independence from France and abolishing slavery, Haiti was forced to compensate France for the loss of France’s property, including slaves. From the start, Haiti was burdened with debt payments that forced the country to pay creditors instead of investing in its people. This unjust cycle of debt continued until this past year, when Haiti received debt cancellation.

This long-overdue and long-fought victory came after years of advocacy by Jubilee USA Network and partners in Haiti and around the world. The deal cancelled $1.2 billion of debt owed mostly to the US, IMF, and World Bank. Before debt cancellation, Haiti was paying almost $60 million a year in debt repayments – money that Haiti could have used for hospitals, roads, and doctors one of the many reasons for Haiti’s deep poverty – and debt relief cut this dramatically.

But the story doesn’t stop there. Haiti still owes nearly $1 billion to a few creditors. The debt deal only cancelled Haiti’s debt taken on before 2004. Tragically for Haiti, they will have to pay at least $16 million a year in debt payments if this debt is not cancelled right away.

Here’s where we come in. We can urge our government to support cancelling the rest of Haiti’s debt as part of its broader relief efforts.

Read more about Haiti’s debt cancellation here.

Already the global response to the crisis has been incredible. In the coming days and weeks, we will continue to look for ways we can help the people of Haiti. Let’s help too by making sure that our response is both moral and effective to help Haiti move forward. Let’s hold Haiti in our hearts and use our voices for the nation’s recovery.

American Red Cross:
“We are humbled and thankful for the outpouring of support from our blog visitors offering their services to help those in need in Haiti. We committed $200,000 last night, and increased that amount this morning to $1 million.”

AmeriCares:
“AmeriCares is sending $3 million worth of medical aid to survivors of yesterday’s deadly, 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti from our Stamford warehouse. Disaster relief modules stocked with emergency medicines and medical supplies valued at $2 million have been deployed from the Amsterdam warehouse.”

Bread for the World:
An extensive list of where and how to help earthquake victims.

Catholic Relief Services:
“In the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, CRS is preparing 10,000 packages, each containing food and water for a family of five. The first 500 are scheduled to be delivered to Port-au-Prince on Friday. Today four CRS staff members are traveling by bus from the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince as CRS begins to increase our presence in Haiti to respond to this unprecedented disaster. CRS has committed an initial $5 million (US) to help survivors of the devastating quake.”

Episcopal Relief and Development:
View a video statement by Presiding Bishop and President of Episcopal Relief & Development.

FEED:
In 2009, WFP School Feeding reached over 400,000 Haitian children in 850 primary schools. FEED is working to maintain WFP School Feeding in Haiti during this critical time.

International Relief & Development:
IRD, a specialist in disaster response and emergency relief operations, has mobilized an emergency response team to Haiti. IRD will focus on the provision of emergency commodities, such as water, sanitation kits, medicines, hygiene kits, and shelter materials.

Islamic Relief:
Islamic Relief USA announced that it will immediately fly a $1 million shipment of aid to Haiti.

Jubilee USA:
Jubilee USA is calling on the Obama administration to take 3 specific steps as part of its comprehensive response to the Haiti earthquake.

Mercy Corps:
A blog post showing satellite images from Port-au-Prince.

Oxfam International:
A six-strong team of Oxfam emergency specialists has been dispatched to Haiti from the UK today to assist the 200 staff who were already stationed in Haiti when the earthquake hit on Tuesday.

Partners in Health:
On the ground reports from staff in Haiti.

Save the Children:
An interview with President and CEO Charles MacCormack.

World Food Programme:
“A WFP food distribution reached 3,000 people in the southern town of Jacmel on Wednesday and, despite logistical difficulties, more distributions were planned for Thursday in three areas of Port-au-Prince with high a population concentration.”

World Vision:
“On Thursday, World Vision will rush 18 metric tons of lifesaving supplies from its warehouse in Denver to Haiti, which was hit by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake Tuesday that affected some 3 million people. Thursday’s shipment will include tarpaulins for temporary shelter, blankets, collapsible water containers, hygiene kits, and cooking sets.” Also, click here to watch an interview with Laura Blank, Media Relations Manager at World Vision.

Yele Haiti:
Wyclef Jean’s nonprofit organization, Yele Haiti, has raised over $1 million for the victims of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake from mobile donations.

Imagine that your family has barely enough money to scrape by. A school sits down the street, but fees make it too expensive for you and your siblings to attend—so you’ve never been able to go to school.

But then imagine that one day the government announces that it has cancelled those school fees. You can go to school. You finally have the chance to learn everything you wanted to know.

This is the reality in Tanzania. Thanks to debt relief savings in 2001, three million more children have enrolled in school, 2,500 new schools have been built and 28,000 new teachers have been recruited.

Today we have an opportunity to extend these benefits to millions more around the world.

After months of anticipation, the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation was introduced late yesterday by Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA), along with Finance Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-VT), Ranking Member Spencer Bachus (R-AL), and seven more Republican and Democrat members of Congress. This encouraging bi-partisan effort by Congressional leaders was an important step in continuing the fight to end global poverty.

This bill would give much-needed debt cancellation to 22 additional impoverished countries left out of previous debt relief deals. It would also help put an end to harmful economic conditions and allow for an audit of past illegitimate debts.

Last year, while the Jubilee Act passed in the House of Representatives and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it didn’t pass the full Senate in time. But today, passage of the Jubilee Act is more urgent than ever—this year, 100 million people were pushed back into poverty due to the economic crisis.

Let’s pass the Jubilee Act in 2010 and help millions more enjoy school for the very first time.

-Hayley Hathaway, Operations and Communications Coordinator, Jubilee USA Network

As explained by Matthew Martin, Director of Debt Relief International, countries freed from odious debt have been able to invest in national poverty-fighting strategies such as lowering the barriers to healthcare and education by reducing user fees and improving infrastructure. In turn, debt relief empowers countries to be less dependent on foreign assistance in the future. Hon. Timothy Thahane, Minister of Finance and Development Planning for Lesotho, shared how when Lesotho received debt relief from the United Kingdom, they immediately redirected monies previously spent on debt relief service to vulnerable populations by providing free primary education, school feeding programs, and antiretroviral drugs for persons living with HIV/AIDS.

All this was somberly put into context when Thahane explained that the gains in employment and revenue due to debt relief and increased trade vis-à-vis the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), are currently threatened by the global financial crisis. The World Bank has estimated that an additional 53 million people will be forced to live on less than $1 per day as a result of the global economic downturn. The decline in commodity prices, remittances, and demand for exports has already had a dramatic effect throughout the continent. For example, the downward trend of car manufacturing in the U.S. has led to a significant decline in steel exports, which has impacted steel-producing African countries such as Guinea, Liberia and South Africa. Similarly, the sudden decline in demand for textile exports, led to a loss of 12,000 jobs in Lesotho, which impacts 40,000-50,000 lives.

Vitalis Meja, Program Director of African Network on Debt and Development (Afrodad) warned that the economic situation will make it very difficult for African countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and called on donor countries to resist reducing Official Development Assistance (ODA). Meja called for the reform of lending practices and joined the other panelists in asking the IMF to allocate revenue from its gold sales for debt relief and grants for the world’s poorest countries, which would help them weather the current economic crisis and avoid falling back into another debt crisis. Lesotho would be one of the countries that would directly benefits.

More information about the IMF gold sales and its potential to help low-income countries can be found in briefings prepared by ONE and Jubilee USA.

-Margaret McDonnell, US NGO Partnerships & Faith Relations Team

President Obama and his new economic team, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, have a huge job ahead of them. They have been facing down a growing economic crisis and recession in the United States from day one.

But while we must work for economic justice at home, we must also not forget our brothers and sisters across the globe in this time of need. That’s why Jubilee USA has launched the What’s On Your Heart? Campaign. Over 6,000 people across the country have already sent handmade hearts and postcards to remind Timothy Geithner that as Americans we care about issues at home and also about our sisters and brothers around the world. The hearts will be delivered to Geithner personally by a delegation of religious leaders, including Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners and Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

There are two really simple ways to get your message to the new Treasury Secretary

1. DO IT YOURSELF: Make a heart telling the Treasury Secretary “what’s on your heart,” with your own message or click here for suggestions. Sign it with your name, address, phone number, and email address. Mail your heart to: Jubilee USA Network / 212 E. Capitol St. NE / Washington, DC 20003.
2. Sign the online postcard.

The deadline to take action is February 20th, 2009.

Amanda Beckham, a senior at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and recent attendee of the Power 100 summit had this to say about why she is involved:

The reason I decided to fill out a postcard, and to empower others to do the same, is because not only is it one of ONE’s issues, but it resonates with my personal humanitarian beliefs. I believe that in conjunction with clean water and substantial food, as well as proper education, there is no way these countries are going to develop and thrive economically and sustainably, if they have debt looming over their heads…These are the reasons I want to be a part of this movement, and I can’t just sit back and think that someone else will take care of it… writing a postcard is the absolute least I can do, but every little bit counts… I also hope others will feel this same altruistic obligation to help our brothers and sisters throughout the world.

We encourage you, your friends, and community members to join Amanda and thousands of other people in sending messages to Timothy Geithner, reminding him that he should do everything he can to address global and domestic poverty. Thanks you for all you do!

-Mercedes Mack, Jubilee USA

-Chris Scott

Making change can be as easy as snapping a photo. One of ONE’s partners, Jubilee USA Network, has launched the Picture New Leadership Campaign to encourage rethinking our nation’s leadership in the world by prioritizing ending global poverty and justice. We want thousands of debt and poverty advocates from around the country to send a clear message to the presidential candidates: “Picture an End to Global Poverty: Cancel Debts! More & Better Aid!”

Getting involved is really simple: 1) Gather people from your community, friends, family, campus or worship community; 2) Take a picture of them holding a sign reading “Picture an End to Global Poverty: Cancel Debts! More and Better Aid!” and 3) Email the picture to Carly@Jubileeusa.org.

Help give our future leaders a clear picture of what real leadership on debt and extreme poverty looks like. Be the change you wish to see in the world-click your pic today! Click here for more information about this project and the Picture New Leadership Campaign.

-Carly Pildis, Jubilee USA Network Outreach Fellow

The lack of affordable food has caused riots and political turmoil. While some Haitians are reportedly eating dirt to quell their hunger, their government is forced to pay almost $1 million each week in debt service to the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, both wealthy banks that were supposedly established to fight poverty.

The finance ministers of the G8 countries — the world’s richest nations — meet on June 13 and 14 in Japan to discuss the food crisis. By cancelling debts they could help alleviate the suffering of Haiti and other affected countries.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. will be attending the G8 meeting. Please sign Jubilee USA’s petition to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. to urge him to support accelerated debt cancellation for Haiti and in the meantime an immediate moratorium on the country’s debt service payments at this meeting. Jubilee USA will deliver this petition before he leaves on Wednesday, June 11.

-Monet Cooper, Jubilee USA

Lesotho’s situation snows how debt and extreme poverty create a crisis for children…Lesotho has only six pediatricians looking after its 800,000 children. One-third of Lesotho’s children are not in school. Meanwhile, Lesotho’s debt repayments equal its entire education budget.

He continues:

As the Senate now considers the Jubilee Act, it can do it’s part to help ensure that Africans and Asians are able to sue their own resources for their own development.

Read the full op-ed, “Debt cancellation a victory for the world,” on The Balitmore Sun’s site.

-Monét Cooper, Jubilee USA