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Contributions from
the Column
Books and Media
The power of the media in time of war
Taking stock of the HIPC initiative
Media and Democracy in Africa
Diversity in Development
05/2005 |
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Debt relief: A good overview
Inkota-Netzwerk (Ed.):
Entschuldung für die Armen? Fünf Jahre nach Köln – eine Bilanz der HIPC-Initiative (Debt relief for the poor. Five years after the Cologne summit – A review of the HIPC initiative).
Berlin, Inkota 2004, 148 pages,
Euro 6.00 (plus postage)
Has the debt initiative for the poorest countries (HIPC) proved to be a failure? A disappointed Jürgen Kaiser, former coordinator of Erlassjahr.de (the German Jubilee 2000 movement), takes stock in his contribution to this anthology produced by Inkota (an ecumenical network of groups founded in 1971 in East Germany). “Dubious successes in poverty reduction stand alongside clear failures in debt relief,” Kaiser states. Many of the 27 debt-ridden countries which had qualified for the HIPC initiative had experienced no fundamental improvement. Quite to the contrary, the debt service payments rose in both absolute and relative terms in the cases of Bolivia, Niger and Zambia.
According to Ann Kathrin Schneider (formerly with the NGO WEED/World Economy, Ecology and Development), the only effect of the national poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSP) drawn up in the context the initiative was a change in World Bank and IMF rhetoric. Instead of ensuring that funds freed up by debt relief flow into poverty reduction, as originally intended, the papers uphold the tradition of the old “structural adjustment” for practical purposes. They offer the poor only charity, rather than real prospects. In the contributions by other authors from the Erlassjahr.de circle, the predominant view is equally critical. Irene Knoke (of Südwind Institut, a christian think tank) lambastes the inadequate debt relief options for countries outside the HIPC initiative. HIPC debt only constitutes eight percent of the total debt of the developing countries.
The seven articles and their sometimes apparently sweeping statements – particularly with regard to PRSPs – are backed up by ten country studies. Six of these are devoted to HIPC in Africa and Latin America, the rest to the big nations of Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia and Iraq (as a special case). It appears to be vitally important to the Erlassjahr.de alliance that the questionable legitimacy of dictator debts (Nigeria, Argentina, the Philippines) be examined, and a precedent set for other countries.
All summed up, this anthology published by Inkota offers the reader an outstanding overview of the debate on debt relief among German NGOs. The informative contribution by Susanne Luithlen, the director of Erlassjahr.de, highlights the impact of the international “Jubilee” movement. Pressure from the “Jubilee South” network founded in Johannesburg in late 1998 led the German campaign to take a more radical stance. It is now focusing more resolutely on the subject of “illegitimate” debt, and is demanding the introduction of a fair and transparent international insolvency procedure for the states burdened by such debt.
Klaus Wardenbach
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