Alternatives to negotiating sovereign debt

July 21, By Tirivangani Mutazu, AFRODAD 

Although not all Heavily Indebted Poor countries (HIPC 1999) have benefited from the debt relief initiative and the subsequent Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI 2005), these processes have left us with many enduring lessons. These lessons include the fundamental fact that such relief initiatives are not sustainable.

Alternatives to negotiate sovereign debt –Any movement towards Fair and Transparent Arbitration mechanism

Although not all heavily indebted poor countries, the HIPCs, have benefited from the HIPC (1999) debt relief initiative and the subsequent Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI 2005) we have been left with many lessons of enduring these processes. The lessons include the fundamental fact that these relief initiatives are not sustainable. The following might be some of the reasons for that. Firstly they are creditor led with decisions about who could and could not get debt relief being made by creditors on premises that sometimes arearbitrary. The debtor countries are in a minor position in the whole process. Secondly the initiatives were a result of pressure from civil society and were not structural and based on fair and just global financial architecture.Thirdly they were based on some philanthropic attitude which would seem to condone the value system of a brutal capitalism . It is our hope that today’s debt relief can be based more on a common value system based on position of justice, equity and human rights.

Nukes not sustainable for the Baltic states say activists

June 7th, 2010, CEE Bankwatch

Under the banner “Nukes are not sustainable”, Bankwatch's member group in Lithuania – Atgaja – this week joined forces with other environment groups and citizens to greet the heads of the Baltic Sea states and European Commission president Juan Manuel Barroso as they arrived at the Baltic Development Forum Summit and the Baltic Sea States Summit – the so-called 'Baltic Davos' – in Vilnius.

The groups called on the gathered officials to cancel their nuclear power projects across the region, requesting that the current Baltic Sea “Nuclear fever” – according to the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, the Baltic Sea is the most radioactive sea in the world – must end if real sustainable development is to take root in the region.

Referring to the example of the massively over-budget and delayed building Olkiluoto-3 reactor in Finland, the groups cautioned against the growing number of nuclear gambles that are now on the table in other Baltic Sea states, including proposals to mine uranium in the Baltic Sea Region, as well as plans to store radioactive waste in rocks near the Baltic Sea.

Alternatives to nuclear are not in short supply, according to the groups who urged Baltic decision-makers to consider much greater use of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and smart energy systems. Such an approach would create more jobs, would use local resources and would increase overall the security of the states and the region. Linas Vainius, of Atgaja and one of the founders of Bankwatch, commented: “The competition currently ongoing between Baltic governments to be the first to build a new nuclear reactor using taxpayers' money does not represent sustainable development.”

Why the EU's leaked document on spending cuts has got me in a rage

March 16th., 2009, by Ann Pettifor

Together with the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. George Papandreou, I am going to give evidence to the EU’s Special Committee on the Financial Crisis in Brussels this Thursday, March 18th.

So today’s leaked report from the EU, arguing that Labour’s plans for cuts to public spending are not "ambitious enough", has got me really het up.

Labour, it appears, is just not ambitious enough about its goals for cutting investment and exacerbating unemployment. It does not have punitive enough targets for cutting benefits to the poor and services for the mentally ill and frail.

Lugar: No more money for development banks until reform

March 11st., 2010 by Bank Information Center 

The staff of Senator Richard Lugar released a report to the Committee on Foreign Relations calling for reform of the IFIs before Congress approves upcoming capital replenishment requests for the institutions.

READ THE ARTICLE | Lugar: No more money for development until reform by Josh Rogin, Foreign Policy, March 10, 2010 (Foreign Policy website)

READ THE REPORT | The International Financial Institutions: A Call for Change by Senator Richard Lugar, March 10, 2010 (Foreign Policy Website)

SEE ALSO | New world – same World Bank: World Bank Group capital increase proposal expands the size without expanding the scope for reform by Vince McElhinny, Bank Information Center, March 8, 2010 (PDF, 761KB)

Partnership between the MIF and Burrill & Company LLC

Guidance to MDBs for Engaging with Developing Countries on Coal-Fired Power Generation

Guidelines released on 14 December 2009 by the U.S. Treasury department aiming to guide multilateral development banks on future financing for coal

IFIs LA Monitor Newsletter - November-December, 2009

In this edition you will find:

* Information resources: Basic Capabilities Index 2009
* News: Seminar-workshop in Montevideo, Bolivian deputies recommend to set up an external debt audit commission, Latin American CSOs and the EIB.
* Reports: Why should the global reserve system be reformed?, Gender, the IFIs and Debt.
* Statements: Solidarity and respect for popular sovereignty: Haiti is calling

The IFIs Latin American Monitor's newsletter, edited in English and Spanish language, is distributed monthly via e-mail and is also available on the IFIs Monitor's website. If you want a free subscription, please see:
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/tools/suscripcion3.html

“Fossil of the Day” award at Copenhagen for Poland's stalling tactics on EU targets

by CEE Bankwatch, December 11st. 

Poland landed the mock NGO prize “Fossil of the Day” on day four of the climate negotiations in Copenhagen for actively blocking the proposed upgrade of the EU's emissions reduction target to 30 percent. [1] This award is given to the country or countries doing the most to obstruct progress in the global climate talks, with Germany and New Zealand trailing Poland on day four.

Failure in Copenhagen is not an option

If the world fails to deliver a political agreement at the UN climate conference in December, it will be “the whole global democratic system not being able to deliver results in one of the defining challenges of our century”, says incoming COP15 president, Connie Hedegaard.

Rhodesian Debt haunts Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe should not be hamstrung by the US$700 million debt it inherited from the Rhodesian Government in 1980 and should move to ensure the reparations are paid.

G20 Pittsburgh: rally on “The Hill”

By John W. Foster, researcher at the North-South Institute

Crowded into Monumental Baptist Church, several hundred youth, community folk and activists spent three hours with Nobel Prize winner Joe Stiglitz, Steelworkers leader Leo Gerard, Washington-based Emira Woods, Enrique Daza of the Hemispheric Social Alliance, Carl Redwood Junior of the Hill District Consensus Group, Rev. John Welsh of the Pittsburgh theological school, Tammy Ban Luu of the Labour/Community Strategy Center of Los Angeles and others. On the “hill”, just down the street from the tent “village” and in one of Pittsburgh’s “no go” areas (according to our taxi driver), the atmosphere was charged with enthusiasm.

It’s impossible to convey the real content of the afternoon. In some ways, surprisingly, the New York Times Business Day (for September 23) (*) helps out, with features on U.S. labour – highlighting Leo Gerard – and on the Stiglitz-Sen panel report to Sarkozy and Co.

As Stiglitz told the crowd at Monumental: “What you measure affects what you do. If you don’t measure the right thing, you don’t do the right thing”. But the Stiglitz-Zen call to break the hobbles of GDP, was not the heart of what he had to say (in summary):

Social Investment is the key

PRESS ADVISORY

by Social Watch (http://www.socialwatch.org); September 18th, 2009

Social investment is the key to a just and effective solution to the
current economic crisis, says citizens' alternative report

PITTSBURGH, USA (September 23): Robust social investment programs should
be enacted in order to effectively stimulate the global economy and
mitigate the impacts of the financial crisis on workers, women and the
poor, concludes the international civil society network Social Watch in
its 2009 Report.  This will not only satisfy criteria of social justice
but also is sound economic policy, states the Report, titled People First.
 The report will be launched today, September 23 at 12 noon at the
Pittsburgh Renaissance Hotel (107 6th Street) in the run-up to the G-20
summit.  People First includes dozens of in-depth reports from grassroots
civil society organizations, which prove that the poorest countries played
no part in causing the crisis, yet they are experiencing its worst
effects.  The exclusion of these countries from forums such as the G-20
creates a further obstacle to implementing socially just policies.

The Social Watch report offers documentation from citizen organizations in
61 countries on the social impacts of the crisis and concrete policy
proposals from civil society on how to counter it in a just and effective
way.  Furthermore, it exhorts governments to incorporate criteria of
transparency, accountability, and inclusiveness when formulating policies
to overcome the effects of the crisis both on a national and international
level.

According to the country reports in People First, job cuts, falling
revenues of private pension funds and lower levels of remittances are
contributing to a drop in the standard of living for people in both rich
and poor countries alike.  However, developing countries are once again
experiencing the brunt of the impacts of the crisis, which further
threatens their fragile economies and cuts off vital sources of foreign
aid.   In countries such as Tanzania and Mozambique, economic recession in
donor countries is putting at risk vital aid programs, which fund 42% and
50% of the respective national budgets.  In the Middle East, increasing
costs for food staples and falling prices for its most important
exportable commodity - oil- have pushed 43% of the Yemeni population into
poverty.

The impacts of the economic crisis in the least-developed countries are
more severe, as they add to the effects of institutional and political
crises that plague these nations.  For example, in Somalia, the lack of a
functioning central government, combined with drought, galloping inflation
and spiralling levels of violence has led over 850,000 people to flee the
country even before the world financial crisis hit.  Meanwhile, in Burma,
the military junta continues to spend nearly half of the national budget
on “defence”, despite the fact that the majority of the population has
plunged into misery due to declining exports and massive destruction
caused by natural disasters.

The report decries the fact that “despite the far-reaching consequences of
financial policy measures, the inter-governmental bodies setting the
agenda and designing financial reforms (…) limit participation from the
majority of countries. The IMF and the World Bank for their part continue
to be ruled by principles regarding decision-making that confine
developing countries to a marginal role and limit transparency.”
Similarly it finds that measures and processes to reform the global
financial structure must respect national policy space, and be consistent
with internationally agreed standards and commitments including those
regarding women’s rights and gender equality.

According to Social Watch, the outcome document of the UN Conference on
the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impacts on Development has
provided a roadmap to overcoming the crisis which truly puts “people
first.” The UN conference which was held in June in New York marked the
first opportunity since the crisis hit for the “G-192”- the total number
of countries which are UN member States – to voice their opinions on how
to find a way out of the current economic turmoil.  Now, “it is time to
put those agreements into practice; to transform the words into action in
order to ensure that there will be no more innocent victims of what is
already a crisis of historic dimensions,” –states Roberto Bissio,
Coordinator for Social Watch.

Social Watch is an international network of non-governmental organizations
in over 60 countries monitoring government compliance with their
international commitments to end poverty and gender discrimination. The
network has published its annual report since 1996.

PRESS CONFERENCE

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23RD, 2009 – 12 NOON
RENAISSANCE HOTEL
107 6th Street, Pittsburgh, PA

The press conference venue has been provided by Citizens for Global
Solutions as part of its Network for Responsible Global Policy project,
which seeks to bring together organizations and individuals who support
responsible global engagement in an increasingly interdependent world.

#          #         #

For more information, contact Roberto Bissio, Social Watch Coordinator,
Tel: +598 2 902 0490
Email: socwatch@socialwatch.org

or in Pittsburgh, Jana Silverman, Social Watch Campaigns Coordinator:
Tel:  +598 99 338 097
Email: jsilverman@item.org.uy

or in New York, Natalia Cardona, Social Watch Advocacy Coordinator
Tel: (215)917-0769
Email: ncardona@item.org.uy

Social Watch
18 de Julio 1077/902
Montevideo 11100
Uruguay
Phone: 598 (2) 9020490
Fax: 598 (2) 9020490 ext 113
www.socialwatch.org

IFIs LA Monitor Newsletter - August, 2009

In this edition you will find:

* World Bank agrees to suspend funding for palm oil sector
* MPs will audit Brazil’s external debt
* Caribbean: Returning to the IMF, on their own terms
* The Brazilian government lends the IMF and cuts social spending
* Returning to the IMF is not for free
* Which Fund do you want?
* Jubilee South rejects IMF backing of Honduran Coup D'Etat

The IFIs Latin American Monitor's newsletter, edited in English and Spanish language, is distributed monthly via e-mail and is also available on the IFIs Monitor's website. If you want a free subscription, please see:
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/tools/suscripcion3.html

Returning to the IMF is not for free

In the past weeks, several voices were heard in favour of Argentina’s return to the IMF, allowing the institution to carry out the review of the economy known as Article IV. The last review was carried out in 2006 and, since then, it has been put off by the government. Those who support this review maintain that it would operate as a "seal of approval" for the economic administration, which would grant access to external finance from the IMF and private investors. It could be thought that in a context of external constraint and recession, this contribution would be useful for the implementation of counter-cyclical policies that may reduce the impact of the economic crisis. Nevertheless, the Fund’s operating rules and economic history certainly allow to pose question marks on this approach.

Phulbari Day Today

August 26, 2009

Different socio-political organisations will observe Phulbari Day today in remembrance of the demonstrations against Asia Energy’s planned open-pit mining at Phulbari in Dinajpur on August 26, 2006.

Three people were killed and many were injured when lawmen into protests against at the Phulbari coal field in August 2006.

Four days after the demonstrations, the then BNP-led government on August 30 signed a six-point agreement with protesters, spearheaded by the national committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and port to expel Asia Energy from Bangladesh and ban open-pit mining.

IFIs LA Monitor Newsletter - July, 2009

In this edition you will find:

* QUITO DECLARATION - On finance for Living Well and the enforcement of Nature's Rights
* The IMF Reform: Aged wine in new wineskin
* US FTAs: blocking the exit from debt crises at a time of global downturn?
* Beyond the world creditors’ cartel
* Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and the Global Reserve System
* The outcome of the 1st BRIC Summit: a derelict zero 
* Impact of the HIPC Initiative on Bolivia
* IN-DEPTH REPORT: The global financial crisis: implications for the South

The IFIs Latin American Monitor's newsletter, edited in English and Spanish language, is distributed monthly via e-mail and is also available on the IFIs Monitor's website. If you want a free subscription, please see:
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/tools/suscripcion3.html

Towards a global climate deal: saving the banks or the planet?

August 5, 2009 by Martin Khor

High-polluting developed countries have already used up much of the world’s “carbon space”, and should pay up their carbon debt to facilitate in fair global deal on climate change.

Next week, climate negotiations resume in Bonn in an attempt to reach a global deal in Copenhagen in December. There are intense pressures to get developing nations like China, India, Brazil and Asean countries to commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But the promised financial and technology transfers to help them move are still nowhere in sight.

The western media seems to blame developing countries for holding up a deal.

“India rejects green agenda with refusal to cut emissions for decade,” is the headline of a front-page article in the Financial Times on Aug 1.

But it is unfair to expect developing countries to commit to emission reduction before they are assured of the funds and technology they need to change from one production system to another.

IFIs LA Monitor Newsletter - May-June, 2009

In this edition you will find:

* Civil society scorecard - governments fail the test
* Correa: we have to defend people’s rights rather than capital
* International Seminar: the Global Crisis and its Impact on Andean and Amazonic Peoples
* Joint statement of the BRIC countries’ leaders
* Bank of the South: Maybe this time...
* IN-DEPTH REPORT: The global financial crisis: implications for the South
* EVENT: United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development

The IFIs Latin American Monitor's newsletter, edited in English and Spanish language, is distributed monthly via e-mail and is also available on the IFIs Monitor's website. If you want a free subscription, please see:
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/tools/suscripcion3.html