8th February, 2005

'Make Poverty History' campaigners gather outside of the British Houses of Parliament. PICTURE: Courtesy of Make Poverty History (www.makepovertyhistory.org)

DAVID ADAMS

In a decision which may have ramifications across the globe, the world’s seven richest nations have agreed in principle that up to $100 billion in debts owed by 37 of the world’s poorest countries should be cancelled.

A final communiqué issued by the finance ministers from the G7 countries - which includes - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada - said they were “agreed on a case-by-case analysis of highly indebted poor countries, based on our willingness to provide as much as 100 per cent debt relief”.

The position was hailed by outspoken campaigner against poverty British Chancellor Gordon Brown - who chaired the weekend meeting - as “the rich countries hearing the voices of the poor”.

It has also won support from independent anti-poverty campaigners around the world but they were quick to add that questions remain over exactly how much debt will be retired and how it will be done.

Jubilee Australia's co-ordinator Stewart Mills says the outcome represents “the first time the G7 have officially embraced the call for 100 per cent multilateral debt cancellation”.

But he adds: “We will be pressuring out government and G7 governments to see these commitments are turned into action in the coming months."

The move comes after the former South African president, Nelson Mandela, joined with the organisers of Britain’s ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign to take more action to combat poverty during a rally in London’s Trafalgar Square.

Urging a new bid to combat “massive poverty and obscene inequality”, Mandela said that “millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains”.

“They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free,” he said.

“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.

“And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.”

The G7 meeting also follows the recent World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, where U2 lead singer Bono joined with former US President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Microsoft founder Bill Gates in calling on developed nations to provide debt relief to struggling African nations.

“With 3,000 Africans dying each day from a mosquito bite, it’s not a cause,” Bono told the forum. “It’s an emergency.”

The panellists told the forum that there was a need for a practical, workable plan for Africa of a scale similar to the Marshall Plan implemented in Europe at the end of World War II.

Meanwhile Australian Prime Minister John Howard, arguing in favor of trade over debt relief, told the forum that the “single greatest contribution the developed world can make to poverty alleviation is to dissolve or break down trade barriers”.

“Trade access is worth for more to under-developed countries than development assistance,” he said.

In a letter written to Australian newspapers last week following the World Economic Forum, World Vision Australia chief executive Reverend Tim Costello and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad executive director Andrew Hewett, said Prime Minister Howard’s support for eliminating trade barriers was to be commended.

But they said the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals - which represent a global action plan including halving poverty by 2015 - can only be achieved through the four key pillars of aid, trade, improved governance and debt relief.

World leaders press for a new effort to tackle global poverty. From L to R: Former US Preident Bill Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, South African President Thabo Mbeki, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U2 lead singer Bono and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. PICTURE: WEF/swiss-image.ch

They said that while Australia had a long history of working on trade protection issues, Howard’s rejection of calls for debt cancellation “ignores the fact that debt relief helps provide the foundations for economic growth that can benefit the poor”.

Speaking to Sight in Australia last week, World Vision’s chief executive, Reverend Tim Costello, believes the world - and the church in particular - is at a “critical watershed” in “making poverty history”.

“I think the fact that Jesus particularly, standing in the shoes of the prophets, spoke about the poor so clearly and unequivocally means that the church should be reading this moment as a sign of God, an opportunity for their prophetic voice to be raised,” he says.

He says that while the world has the capacity to deal with global poverty, the question which remains is whether the human race has the spiritual and moral imagination to match the capacity with political will.

Reverend Costello describes as “quite extraordinary” the unprecedented recent debates over poverty in world fora - debates which he believes have largely been triggered by the recent response to Asia’s tsunami disaster.

“I think governments have been privately amazed at the generosity of their own citizens and have actually responded to that generosity by saying ‘We’ve got to play catch-up here; we’ve got to match it’,” he says.

“Citizens have been feeling a sense that we are a global family - not just a global economy or a global market - and, as a global family, someone’s suffering is my suffering; someone’s destiny is my destiny. There’s a whole new moral imagination there.”

For those committed to tackling poverty, meanwhile, the focus has already begun to shift to the World Bank/International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington in April and the G8 Summit - which includes Russia as well as G7 nations - in Scotland in July.