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The Jubilee debt Campaign: a manifesto
JDC has put together a 'manifesto' for the General Election. It will be online soon and
we are happy to send it out to anyone who'd like a copy in the meantime. In short, it
includes the following policy demands:
• Legislate to prohibit the activities of vulture funds;
• End policy conditionality in debt relief and new lending.
• Support a Fair and Transparent Arbitration Process to adjudicate on the payability and legitimacy of sovereign debt
• Support binding standards on UK lending through reform of the ECGD
• Recognise the concept of co-responsibility and illegitimacy in lending and take steps to deal with historical illegitimate debt
We have sent the manifesto to all parties. The Conservative Party has refused to 'selfassess'
and the Labour Party assessment is on its way. Meantime we have used the parties assessments to the Bond manifesto, and various policy positions, to create the following assessment of party positions.
This assessment will change, especially as (we hope) parties sign up to support vulture fund legislation. Again, a full assessment paper is available from the office:
The Labour government has gained international renown for their stance on debt relief,
playing a key role in current debt cancellation schemes which have delivered relief to
nearly 30 countries. They have also gone beyond the international schemes through UK
MDRI which delivers debt relief to most low income countries.
They also currently support least developed countries through grant provision – not loans. They are
opposed to economic conditionality in UK lending and debt cancellation and believe the World Bank and IMF should also end economic conditionality, though regardless of their failure to do so, they have increased funding to the World Bank.
They have recently supported efforts to take legislative action against vulture funds, however, they have not made a commitment to do so after the next election. On the key question of a structural
solution to debt, Labour are wedded to the current debt relief processes and do not support an arbitration process, most especially one in a neutral space, and they oppose the concept of auditing or cancelling historical debts on the basis of legitimacy. They believe they do abide by responsible lending criteria, but have made little movement towards making such criteria legally binding, and are currently engaged in watering down ethical and environmental standards on the ECGD.
The Conservative Party supported debt relief when last in power and played a key role
in establishing early versions of the current debt relief initiative. They are committed to
accelerating HIPC, though it is unclear what this means in practice. They will continue, as
far as possible, to give aid as grants not loans, and will encourage others to give aid for
‘social objectives’ as grants as well.
Long-term they place faith in the development of capital markets in Africa to assist international lending. However, the Conservatives do not show recognition of the problems unregulated capital markets can cause even richer developing countries. The Conservative front bench supported the passage of the recent Vultures Fund Bill through Parliament but have not committed to introduce legislation after an election.
They say nothing about an arbitration process or auditing or cancelling illegitimate debts. They support higher environmental standards for the ECGD – banning ECGD support for 'dirty' fossil fuel power stations. However, there is no commitment to making this reform wider and applying it to anti-poverty standards.
The Liberal Democrats have committed to taking measures against vulture funds and to
lobby for similar action at international level. Though they don’t specifically say whether
action would take the form of binding legislation, they have been supportive of the
recent Bill.
They also support renewing the international effort on debt by giving the new International Financial Authority the quasi-judicial function of assessing the nature and sources of debt and supervising an ‘administration/ bankruptcy’ procedure for sovereign nations that cannot repay all their debt. This is promising, although doesn’t mention the need to audit historical debt and cancel that deemed illegitimate.
They also support privatisation of the ECGD, though it remains unclear what impact this would have on lending standards. They have not committed to ending policy conditionality on new
lending or debt cancellation and say only that “[l]iberalisation of markets is in the long
term interests of developing countries, but this should be managed by developing
countries".
“The Green Party are critical of the conditions attached to debt relief schemes and the
limited nature of the schemes. They support going beyond the HIPC scheme to ensure
that all foreign debts owed by least developed countries should immediately be written
off, as well as those of all other countries which need such support in order to meet their
MDG targets, and would press for this internationally.
They support foreign assistance to least developed countries being provided only in the form of grants. They also support the more radical solution that all developing countries should limit debt service payments to 10% of export earnings per year immediately, and that rich countries should
agree to write off the annual transfer of wealth which goes from the developing countries to the North each year – effecting some of most important functions an arbitration scheme might play.
“Plaid Cymru and the SNP don’t have up-to-date information.”
We would welcome the inclusion of parts or all of our debt manifesto in your advocacy
around the General Election. |
Jubilee Debt Campaign, 31/03/2010 |
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