Lack of access to health care, education, and clean water means millions of the world’s poorest suffer in extreme poverty. Large debts run up by dictatorial regimes long gone from power has left dozens of poor countries crushed by unpayable debts.
But under pressure from the global Jubilee debt cancellation movement, world leaders at the G-8 summits in 1999 and again in 2005 agreed to cancel billions in unpayable poor country debt, freeing up billions of dollars towards investment in social services.
By the end of 2009, 26 countries in Africa and Latin America have seen most of their debts cancelled. The United States and other rich countries have helped to provide more than $100 billion in debt cancellation to promote economic development and poverty-reduction programs in the developing world.
Jubilee has worked to document some of these successes.
DEBT RELIEF WORKS IN TANZANIA
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