More links

Jubilee Debt Campaign; Call for Change - How the UK can afford to cancel its share of Third World Debt. Jubilee Debt Campaign & World Development Movement - March 2004
The report argues that Poor countries must have full debt cancellation – multilateral as well as bilateral – as an essential first step towards meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. This is seen as the only policy that stands a realistic chance of allowing poor countries the financial ‘fresh start’ that they have been promised. It argues that the UK must commit itself to financing its share of canceling multilateral debt in support of meeting the MDGs. http://www.jubileeresearch.org/analysis/reports/callforchange230804.htm

Jubilee Research. High Hopes and Small Concessions; Can ‘Make Poverty History’ really make poverty history? By Susanna Mitchell 28th June 2005.
The article argues that the present plight of sub-Saharan Africa (including its debt burden) is largely the result of a global economic system skewed against the poorest countries, and global decision-making structures which deny them a say in how their resulting economic crises are addressed. It is critically important that those campaigning to tackle global poverty realise this, and do not allow limited short-term concessions to divert their attention from the long-term agenda. http://www.jubileeresearch.org/news/mph290605.htm

Wolfowitz and Global “Democracy”: a Test of Blair’s Commitment to the Africa Commission by David Woodward, New Economics Foundation, 18 March 2005. Woodward argues that the “right” of the US to nominate the President of the World Bank has no legal basis; and the Bush’s administration, through its flagrant abuse of the convention, has forfeited any claim the US might once have had to this privilege. The governments of other developed countries – who have the majority of the votes in the World Bank, due to its undemocratic “weighted” voting system – can and must take the opportunity to oppose this nomination. http://www.jubileeresearch.org/opinion/wolfowitz180305.htm

Jubilee Database: The database gives some answers to the most frequent questions about the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC) initiative and debt before and after HIPC. http://www.jubileeresearch.org/database/index.htm

Treacherous Conditions; How IMF and World Bank policies tied to debt relief are undermining development. The paper observes that both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund today deal with areas of policy that reach deep into the policy-making process within member governments, and that are going well beyond their original mandates. It is argued that it is time to rethink the World Bank and IMF conditionality. It is time for the poorest countries in the world to have control over economic policy and to be able to explore their own routes to development. www.wdm.org.uk/resources/briefings/debt/treacherousconditionsbriefing01102003.pdf

A new deal for low-income countries: financing development through debt cancellation and aid, a paper by CAFOD, Christian Aid, Eurodad and Jubilee Research.
The humanitarian imperative behind the Millennium Declaration and the reiteration of unanimous political support in the Monterrey Consensus, the G8 Kananaskis declaration, and a host of other UN and international communiqués places a new onus on the full range of development agencies – civil society organisations, bilateral donors, recipient governments, inter-governmental and multilateral institutions – to respond in good faith with a full commitment to the achievement of MDGs. The paper sets out the policy actions required by the World Bank, IMF, and bilateral donors in order to fulfil the MDGs.  http://www.cafod.org.uk/policy_and_analysis/policy_papers/debt/debt_and_mdgs

Did the G8 drop the debt?
Five years after the Birmingham human chain, what had been achieved, and what more needs to be done? A report by CAFOD, Jubilee Research and the Jubilee Debt Campaign. http://www.cafod.org.uk/policy_and_analysis/policy_papers/debt/did_the_g8_drop_the_debt

HIV, Poverty and Debt
Investing debt-relief monies and the proposed Global Health Fund in addressing HIV. A sizeable proportion of funds needs to be allocated to HIV prevention programmes and to initiatives that strengthen health care infrastructures to enable a sustained and skilled approach to care, treatment and prevention in the longer term. http://www.cafod.org.uk/policy_and_analysis/policy_papers/hivaids/hiv_poverty_and_debt
PRS: Poverty Reduction or Public Relations Strategies? A paper by Henry Northover of CAFOD, September 2002.
PRSPs require a meaningful and genuine recasting of institutional relationships around “a conditionality from below” approach. This shift is necessary if the new policy landscape is to allow for genuinely nationally owned economic growth, development and poverty reduction strategies. http://www.cafod.org.uk/policy_and_analysis/policy_papers/debt/prs

To lend or to grant? Critique of IMF/World bank approach to debt sustainability. The paper observes that any serious commitment on the part of the international community to the achievement of the MDGs requires a recasting of all financing instruments around this internationally agreed objective. The Bank and Fund's work needs to incorporate a wider set of human development considerations when assessing the creditworthiness of Low Income Countries (LICs).
http://www.cafod.org.uk/policy_and_analysis/policy_papers/debt/lend_or_grant