Debt Cancellation

Yesterday, the IMF and the World Bank decided to support $4.6 billion of debt relief for Liberia.
More details from the official press release:

Exciting news out of Canada today. Jim Flaherty (the Minister of Finance) just announced that the Canadian government will forgive nearly $24 million owed by the Republic of Congo. This means that Canada has now cancelled close to $1 billion of debt owed by the world’s poorest countries.

The Haiti Debt Relief and Earthquake Recovery Act of 2010, which previously passed both the House and the Senate, was quietly signed into law on Monday night; the will of the American people is loud and clear that all nations should come together to aid Haiti’s recovery.

The Associated Press is reporting that the Inter-American Development Bank has agreed to forgive $479 million in Haitian debt. This is particularly significant, as the IADB is one of the Haiti’s biggest lenders.

On Wednesday evening, the House of Representatives passed Rep. Maxine Waters’ bill, (H.R. 4573)- the Debt Relief for Earthquake Recovery in Haiti Act. It passed under what is known as ‘a suspended rule’ meaning that it is not considered controversial, so the vast majority of the House Members voted for it. This legislation directs the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury to seek the cancellation of Haiti’s $1.2 billion debts to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and other multilateral development institutions.

On Friday the U.S. Senate passed, by unanimous consent, the Haiti Recovery Act (S.2961), introduced by Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Lugar (R-IN). The bill addresses the long-term needs that are critical to Haiti’s recovery, particularly its governance and public infrastructure. The bill does 2 specific things:
1) It instructs the Treasury Secretary to direct America’s representatives at each of the multi-lateral financial institutions to advocate within institutions:

ONE’s Senior Director of Government Relations has a piece today in The Hill, a widely read publication in Washington, looking back at ONE’s “Drop Haiti’s Debt” campaign, and where things currently stand.
You won’t find a better summary of both the campaign and the road to the full cancellation of Haiti’s debt.

Petition Delivered; G7 Leaders Call to Cancel Haiti’s Debt!

Thanks to the more than 400,000 to signed the petition worldwide, the cancellation of Haiti’s debt may be all but a formality at this point.
Yesterday, at 4 p.m.

On Friday afternoon, ONE launched a campaign to encourage the world to drop Haiti’s $890 million in debt — and just a few days later over 70,000 people from across the globe have already added their name.
If you haven’t already, please sign that petition now, and if you have, please forward it along to your friends.

Check out this partner post on the debt relief and the Jubilee Act from our friends at Jubilee USA Network.
Imagine that your family has barely enough money to scrape by. A school sits down the street, but fees make it too expensive for you and your siblings to attend—so you’ve never been able to go to school.