There were many discussions on debt issues at the World
Social Forum meeting in Bamako, Mali in the last few
days. Eurodad Coordinator Alex Wilks spoke at two
workshops; the first on Africa’s illegitimate debt and
the second on the multilateral debt initiative proposed
by the G8 in 2005.
Multilateral debt initiative
Many campaigners echoed comments by Eurodad and others
that the debt deal reached last year is nowhere near
enough. Demba Moussa Dembele of Forum des Alternatives,
Senegal for example commented that the G8 initiative is
currently cancelling just 15% of the debts of Sub-Saharan
African countries.
Among the countries excluded from the cancellation at
present is Mauritania – the sole country to be axed by
the IMF in its decision last month (see: http://www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=673).
A good number of Mauritanians were present at the Social
Forum to complain about this decision and demand that
their country be included in the multilateral debt
relief initiative. They circulated a short briefing and
a statement which many Forum participants signed onto.
The statement calls the IMF decision “economically
unjust and politically mistimed” as after 21 years of
arbitrary rule there is a new government which is making
significant efforts to clean up politics.
The briefing comments that the IMF’s decision is
“incomprehensible” because it punishes a country that
has just got rid of an autocratic regime of 21 years’
duration. The IMF gave technical reasons of falsified
data by government officials – but this is widely
believed to be cover for a political judgement on the
post-coup regime. The Mauritanian briefing calls the IMF
decision “full of contradictions” and says that the IMF
has been involved in the country for many years during
the previous regime and it is ridiculous for it to say
suddenly that the governments’ data is wrong.
Tracking the multilateral debt
deal
Aminata Touré Barry, Chairperson of CAD Mali, said civil
society groups should help determine and monitor what
happens with the money that countries will not have to
pay in debt service. Suggestions were made of some of
the practical steps activists in the countries concerned
can take to monitor what is happening with the debt deal
on the ground. Among these are:
· to check whether the IMF and African Development Bank
have already completed the cancellation of their parts
of the debt (which supposedly took place in the first
week of January);
· to check with relevant ministries how any debt service
savings are reflected in their 2006 budgets;
· to advocate for specific uses for any extra money in
budgets;
· to see what changes may have been made in agreements
with the World Bank, IMF and African Development Bank
and to advocate for transparency and due process in any
renegotiations or new negotiations with these bodies.
It was also suggested, including by Solidarity Africa
Network, that the cut-off date of World Bank debts
eligible under the scheme be pushed back to at least the
end of 2004 (in line with the IMF decision). It is
illogical that the IMF and African Development Fund
should have cut-off dates of end-2004 but the World Bank
end-2003. Also that creditors refund multilateral debt
payments made by countries between the G8 announcement
and its implementation.
While almost all speakers in Bamako expressed very
strong dissatisfaction with the results of campaigns on
debt to date a number commented that we have scored a
number of partial victories from which to build. Lidy
Nacpil of Jubilee South reminded the crowd at one
meeting that “there are no shortcuts – we need to build
and strengthen movements.”
Many meetings in Bamako dealt with other aspects of the
debt crisis, with other tactics such as debt repudiation.
And many further meetings with other policy and
political debates – on trade, aid, tax, immigration and
many more. The first global Social Forum held in Africa
was a major success, with many new contacts and ideas
generated to help fuel civil society action in the
coming year.
Parallel discussions are currently underway at the World
Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. Eurodad will report
on these over the coming week. Next year’s World Social
Forum will take place in Kenya.
