Neil Watkins Debt Quotations

Last summer, President Bush and other world leaders promised debt cancellation to the world's most impoverished countries. But a proposal before the World Bank this week would needlessly delay cancellation for at least two years from last year's G-8 summit for more than half of those countries eligible.

To top it off, the Bank is asking these countries to keep making non-refundable debt payments to the Bank instead of using the funds to fight poverty, HIV/AIDS, and now avian flu in Africa. We call on the US Executive Director and the World Bank's Board to do the right thing and scrap these delays when they meet on Thursday.

This means that these 18 countries should only be the beginning, ... The World Bank and IMF should extend debt cancellation to all poor countries if they are serious about poverty alleviation.

As world leaders gather in New York, we are still decades away from meeting the modest Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty. A critical tool for achieving these goals is debt cancellation. A recent study by U.K. charities found that at least 62 low-income nations would require full debt cancellation -- in addition to more aid and trade justice -- as a first step towards achieving the goals.

The IMF/World Bank must agree to full debt cancellation this weekend. But this will only be a first step towards our broader goal of expanding debt cancellation to all impoverished countries, without devastating economic conditions, in the months and years ahead.