APPENDIX 6
Letter from Drop the Debt
I am writing following your invitation to submit
a briefing note from Drop the Debt which may be of interest to
the Treasury Committee in advance of the evidence session with
Stephen Pickford. The Committee's session is timely in the context
of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries' (HIPC) initiative for
the poorest countries. As you know, the first 22 HIPC countries
are now in the process of receiving some cancellation and evidence
is emerging of the performance of the initiative. There is a pressing
need for analysis of the effectiveness of the initiative and the
need for further cancellation. The Committee's interest will therefore
be extremely valuable.
For your information, Drop the Debt is the short-term
successor to the Jubilee 2000 campaign, leading the international
effort to secure a New Deal on Debt by the time of the Genoa G8
Summit in July 2001. We are strongly supported by major organisations
working in this area including Oxfam, Christian Aid, Cafod, the
World Development Movement and Tearfund, and we are working closely
with debt campaigns in Italy, the Untied States and around the
world. As former Deputy Director of Jubilee 2000, I am leading
Drop the Debt which will run through to September 2001.
While writing, I would like to invite you to
consider a fuller inquiry by the Committee on the prospects for
a New Deal on Debt by the time of the Genoa Summit. Such a New
Deal would almost certainly require deeper cancellation by the
IMF and World Bank, using their own reserves, the quantity and
availability of which are a matter of some debate. The Committee's
attention to this in the coming months would certainly help shed
some light on what may be possible. I would be happy to discuss
this in more detail if that would be helpful.
17 January 2001
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