The Jubilee Act passed the Senate Foreign Relations committee yesterday. Next it would have to be considered and passed by the full Senate before it could go to the President and be signed into law.

The global food crisis has Haiti in its grip.

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

Be sure to check out the op-ed about debt, healthcare and the urgency of passing the Jubilee Act in the Senate written by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu in Wednesday’s Baltimore Sun. Writes Tutu:

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

The Jubilee Act just passed the House 285-132.

The bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) in June 2007 and would push for an international agreement to write off United States’ loans to qualified countries and urge the U.S. to work with other rich nations to do the same.

The money poor countries would have had to pay to debt would be directed to infrastructure development, education and health care, among other improvements.

Next step – a Senate vote.

The House of Representatives Votes on the Jubilee Act Wednesday, April 16 at 10:45 a.m.

The Jubilee Act will be debated and voted on the House floor on Wednesday, April 16. Watch it live on C-SPAN as the vote happens.

Please call your representative via the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 today and ask him/her to vote “Yes”.

Use Jubilee’s quick email form to send a message to a friend, colleague or group and urge them to take action on the Jubilee Act!

-Monet Cooper, Jubilee USA

It’s official, the Jubilee Act will be voted on in the House Financial Services Committee this coming Thursday, April 3 at 10 a.m. You can watch the debate and the vote here.

If your member of Congress is on the House Financial Services Committee, now would be a great time to give him/her a call and urge a yes vote on Thursday!

The committee vote is the only thing standing between the Jubilee Act & consideration by the full US House of Representatives!

We expect that after the committee vote the Jubilee Act will move fairly quickly. It will probably be considered by the full House of Representatives by Monday, April 14.

You can find a list of the members of the House Financial Services Committee here.

-Monet Cooper, Jubilee USA

We’ve received a lot of calls and emails from Jubilee supporters who have called during our Leap Into Action Call-In Days their senators and representatives about the Jubilee Act (S. 2166 and H.R.2634), which will soon to be considered in the House and Senate.

The Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation will expand eligibility for 100 percent debt cancellation without harmful economic conditions to 67 impoverished countries in the Global South.

When you call your senators or representative, you’re calling on behalf of the millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Asia who suffer when debt repayment must be prioritized over health care, education and clean water.

Every day, Sub-Saharan Africa sends $100,000 back to America in debt payments. Imagine what could be done with that money if it were to stay in those countries.

The call you make today is a part of a national campaign to pass the Jubilee Act within the 55 legislative days Congress has this year. This is the last and final session of Congress before the elections with most of the legislative days being frontloaded prior to June.

This tight deadline makes it even more imperative for ONE members and others to call their members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor this bill.

Get the Call Script here.

More Information About the Jubilee Act here.

-Monet Cooper, Jubilee USA

Today, as part of Jubilee’s “Measure Up” campaign, a group of global poverty advocates and debt campaigners met with Senator Voinovich’s District Representative in Columbus, Ohio. The purpose of the meeting was to ask the Senator to become a co-sponsor of the Jubilee Act (S 2166). Our group of 4 was made up of Katie Andrews, organizer for the ONE Campaign, Ginnie Vogts, an organizer for Results, Loretta Raiford local volunteer with ONE, and Brian Swarts, national organizer for Jubilee USA.

The group highlighted for Khisha Fallon, the District Representative, the importance of reducing global poverty and the effectiveness of debt cancellation. Katie spoke about debt is holding back a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa from reaching the Millennium Development Goals. Ginnie pointed out that reducing poverty is critical to increasing global security, as impoverished countries are more vulnerable to political instability and even terrorist activity. Loretta shared her experiences working in refugee camps in Uganda, and seeing the heart-breaking need there for increased investment in health care, education and clean water. Lastly, Brian emphasized the fact that it makes good economic sense to take pro-active steps to fight poverty in places like sub-Saharan Africa, where many countries are so poor that they cannot reduce poverty through economic growth alone – cooperation from other countries is essential.

While Senator Voinovich has not issued a statement on the Jubilee Act, Khisha has said that she will pass on our ideas to him. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Voinovich would be joining Ranking Member Richard Lugar (IN) and Senator Johnny Isakson (GA) in co-sponsoring the Jubilee Act.

-Brian Swarts, National Field Organizer, Jubilee USA

Thank you again for all the work you all have done to help move Liberia’s debt cancellation forward. There have been some questions about the future use of this debt cancellation money. I want to provide with you some facts and figures.

First, in order to qualify for the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) debt cancellation process that Liberia has now entered, a country must establish a track record of macroeconomic stability and must have a national poverty-reduction plan. That Liberia met these two requirements so quickly after such a prolonged period of conflict (their 14-year civil war) is a testament to their early success and the leadership of President Johnson Sirleaf.

Second, debt cancellation has proven to be an effective means of delivering poverty reduction. Some success stories:

• In 2005, Nigeria spent $750 million of $1 billion in debt relief through a tracking system (the “virtual” poverty fund) that monitored and tracked the flow of funds to poverty-reducing activity and evaluated its impact. This money was directed to education, health and infrastructure projects.
• For every dollar freed up from debt services, African governments have increased social spending by twice as much.
• Overall expenditures on poverty reduction in all HIPC countries increased from $14.8 billion (9.3% of GDP) in 2005 to 16.7 billion (10.2% of GDP) in 2006.

Below is a chart that graphically depicts the impressive increases in poverty-reducing expenditures in countries that have past “completion point” in the HIPC process.

-Josh Lozman, ONE Vote ‘08 Policy Director

As Steve Radelet reported here on the ONE Blog on Monday, after a 18 month delay, the IMF is finally moving ahead with debt relief for Liberia!

Yesterday, the director of the IMF’s External Relations Department issued a statement::

“We have received a large volume of emails on this topic, so this letter is being posted because it is impossible to respond to each message individually….Their strong support to the cause of debt relief contributed to the broad donor support that made this financing possible.”

Jubilee, DATA, the Center for Global Development, Foreign Policy In Focus, and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did incredible work keeping up the pressure, and ONE members sent tens of thousands of emails pushing the IMF for this action.

It’s not a bad day – when we get proof that our voices are being heard, and that our actions are truly making a difference for the poorest people in this world.

Read the full statement on the IMF site.

-Virginia Simmons