Climate Home News quoted Aldo Caliari on China's recent commitment to donate a quarter of its IMF pandemic recovery funds, known as Special Drawing Rights, to African countries. Read an excerpt below or read the full article here.

China ‘trumps’ the west by pledging larger share of IMF relief to African nations

In his opening speech to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) in Senegal, president Xi Jinping pledged to donate 600 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines and redistribute $10 billion worth of rare IMF reserve assets, known as special drawing rights (SDRs), to African countries. China’s allocation of 29bn SDRs is worth about $40bn.

“It puts pressure on western donors. It will be difficult for advanced economies to justify that they are not in a position to contribute that share when China is able to do it,” Aldo Caliari, of the Jubilee USA Network, an NGO which advocates for debt relief, told Climate Home News.

The IMF injected $650bn of SDRs into the global economy in August to help countries recover from Covid-19 by buying vaccines, alleviating debt and investing in sustainable development.

Read more here.

The National Catholic Reporter praised Jubilee USA's work in support of more social services funding for Puerto Rico. Read an excerpt below and find the full article here.

Links: The Rittenhouse verdict; Catholic Worker reaction to Archbishop Gomez; Bosnia on the verge of breakup

Our friends at Jubilee USA are not exactly unsung heroes: Many people know of their good work. But the special interest they have shown for the suffering of the people of Puerto Rico, combined with both their expertise about fiscal issues and their deep commitment to Catholic social doctrine, has made the organization a real hero to the island's people. This press release, with links to their letter to members of Congress, looks at the provisions of the Build Back Better bill, which will help alleviate the poverty in Puerto Rico.

Read the full article here.

Mexican newspaper La Silla Rota featured the Atlas of Vulnerability by Jubilee USA and LATINDADD in an article about how existing crises are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read an excerpt below (translated from Spanish) and find the full article here.

Mexico, Poor or Middle-Class Country?

According to the report entitled Vulnerability Atlas, the pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean documents that 48.8 percent of the Mexican population lives in poverty, while in Honduras 64.7 and in Guatemala, 59.3 percent. With this, Mexico is far from the countries that registered the best conditions, since Chile, Uruguay and Panama only have 10.8, 11.6 and 20.7 percent of their respective populations in precarious income.

According to Latindadd, poverty acts as an amplifying factor of the economic and health impacts left by the covid-19 pandemic.

Read the full article here.

Paraguay-based newspaper Última Hora featured the Atlas of Vulnerability by Jubilee USA and LATINDADD in an article about the challenges Latin American countries face in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. Read an excerpt below (translated from Spanish) and find the full article here.

Address vulnerabilities to transition to development

Eric LeCompte wrote a guest article in Barron's on the need to include middle-income countries in a global COVID-19 response and recovery. Read an excerpt below and read the full article here.

The Global Covid Response Is Leaving Millions Behind

We can only end the pandemic if we end it everywhere. Yet, across the world, Covid recovery efforts are leaving hundreds of millions of people behind. As policymakers seek the best way out of the crisis, their efforts should incorporate what we now know: It’s more difficult for developing countries to respond to the pandemic.

The Covid-19 crisis hit developing countries harder than wealthy countries and the effects will linger longer. The International Monetary Fund projects that advanced economies will return to their prepandemic growth trends in 2022, while developing countries will see persistent losses continue for several more years.

A new interactive map and database published by my organization, Jubilee USA Network, and our partners, LATINDADD, shows why developing countries face greater pandemic health and economic challenges.

The database, called the Atlas of Vulnerability, identifies pre-existing challenges that 24 developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean face. These vulnerabilities heightened the impact of the coronavirus crisis. While these developing countries are crushed by the ongoing pandemic, they are left out of solutions decided by world leaders because they are not classified by the World Bank as “low-income.”

Read more here.

The National Catholic Reporter quoted Eric LeCompte on a meeting between President Joe Biden and Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 29. Read the excerpt below or read the full article here.

The National Catholic Reporter mentioned Eric LeCompte's discussion about labor, religion, politics and public engagement at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. Read the excerpt below or read the full article here.

Links: Latino voters in Virginia; Missouri's MAGA warrior; flying on French-fry fuel

Several on-campus institutes at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, hosted a discussion about labor, religion, politics and public engagement last week, featuring Eric LeCompte, executive director at Jubilee USA, and Damon Silvers, assistant to the president and special counsel at the AFL-CIO. Worth taking the time to watch. Their reflections on the devastation in Puerto Rico after the twin hurricanes of 2017 are moving — and more than moving, they are poignant.

Read more here.

Eric LeCompte was mentioned by Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs on the G20's opportunity to mend divides between rich and poor countries exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the excerpt below or read the full article here.

Is This a Kairos Moment for the G20 to Address Inequalities?

Divergent paths and inequalities are a stark reality that mark the COVID-19 era. The global emergencies affect different individuals very differently. Everyone shares in uncertainties, well aware of deaths, illness, and economic disruptions, but some have actually seen their wealth increase and savored time for reflection and new ventures. For others, however, grief, hunger, and disrupted relationships dominate life. The situation for nations also ranges widely. All face setbacks and need to adjust hopes and plans, but many are looking catastrophe in the face, with decades of progress wiped out.

Deep economic and financial crises for states are the most immediate challenge for the G20 summit, and attention was called particularly to Africa and to especially vulnerable communities. An invited panelist, Eric LeCompte, Jubilee USA, could not participate in person but the discussion highlighted that faith-linked network’s active and continuing engagement with the G20 process and leaders on precisely these challenges.

Read more here.

Jubilee USA was featured in a Crux article on its Atlas of Vulnerability, launched with the Latin American Network on Debt, Development and Rights (LATINDADD). Read an excerpt below and read the full article here.

New ‘Atlas of Vulnerability’ show where help is most needed post-COVID

Just in time for the convening of world leaders at the G20 Summit in Rome, two advocacy organizations on Oct. 25 launched a database that illuminates existing vulnerabilities and growing challenges developing nations face due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Formally known as Atlas of Vulnerability: Developing Countries and the Pandemic (vulnerabilityatlas.org), the database features 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries that Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, argues need more support, resources and aid then they’ve received so far through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Releasing it now, he hopes, portrays that reality to G20 leaders as they come together this week.

“These are really unfortunate, really challenging findings that we hope motivate world leaders to act,” LeCompte told Crux. “This data is going to make it possible for world leaders to see that these developing middle income countries need to be included in aid and financing, and need to be included in more vaccine distribution policies.”

Read more here.

Settlement Poised for Judge's Confirmation

Puerto Rico’s Senate and House passed a deal that settles $35 billion in Puerto Rico debt and will save the island two-thirds in debt payments.

"Puerto Rico voted to end the bankruptcy process that the island has gone through for four years," stated Eric LeCompte, the Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network. LeCompte worked with Puerto Rico religious leaders on solving the island's debt crisis since 2015. "With natural disasters, high child poverty rates and uncertain economic forecasts, we are concerned that Puerto Rico will be able to make the debt payments."

Bondholders receive $7 billion in cash and other benefits.

"We are worried that Puerto Rico may need to restructure its debt in a few years," shared LeCompte.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain, overseeing Puerto Rico’s 4-year bankruptcy process, ordered a mediation to settle remaining differences between the legislation and Puerto Rico's federally installed Financial Oversight and Management Board. Differences remain over pension issues in the debt deal.

The judge could confirm the agreement on November 8th.

Reuters quoted Eric LeCompte in an article discussing the top concerns for policymakers at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.

Analysis: Supply chains, inflation cloud vaccine, debt woes at IMF-World Bank meetings

By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal

Supply chain woes and growing inflation concerns pushed aside a widening gap in COVID-19 vaccinations and mounting debt problems for developing countries as the top concerns for global policymakers at International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings this week.

Relatively little new progress was made on increasing vaccine supplies to developing countries, although officials highlighted an increasing divergence between rich and poor countries as a growing financial and economic risk.

The focus on the normalization pains that wealthier economies are experiencing and a World Bank data-rigging scandal that had clouded the future of IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva proved a disappointment for anti-poverty groups.

"Given how the pandemic is becoming worse in most of the world's countries, I'm concerned by the lack of action at the meetings on vaccine distribution, debt relief and general pandemic response," said Eric LeCompte, executive director of the Jubilee USA Network, a religious development group.

Read more here.

Vietnamese Newspaper Kinh te & Do thi (Economic and Urban) quoted Eric LeCompte in an article discussing the International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meeting. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.

“Hot” issues at the 2021 annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank

By Nguyen Phuong

The annual meetings of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will take place from October 11-17 in Washington, USA. In it, officials will discuss the global economy, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and global minimum corporate tax rate issues.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the Jubilee USA Network, said he is waiting to see if the world's wealthiest countries make commitments to fund more funding for the vaccine support program for low-income countries. especially in Africa.

Mr. LeCompte also expressed concern that if the IMF and World Bank do not push governments to act now, the global roll-out of vaccine support will continue to be delayed, and potentially fall short of its goals. The World Health Organization (WHO) is to vaccinate 70% of the population of each country by mid-2022.

Read more here.

Devex quoted Eric LeCompte in an article highlighting what to watch for in the upcoming World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meeting. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.

5 things to watch at the World Bank-IMF annual meetings

By Shabtai Gold

Starting Monday, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are holding their annual meetings — under the shadow of a scandal around the bank’s Doing Business publication, which has embroiled IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva and threatens the credibility of both institutions.

The timing of the crisis — with IMF’s board conducting a probe on Georgieva, its managing director and a former chief executive at the World Bank — could distract from the core work of the gatherings, which will see attendees participating in person and virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eric LeCompte, the executive director at Jubilee USA Network, which advocates for debt relief, said he is watching the meetings in Washington for signs that the world’s wealthiest countries will commit more to financing the vaccine rollout.

“The G-20 failed over the summer to solve the financing issue,” he said, referring to the group of industrial and emerging-market nations. “We are at a point now where the G-20 is really in a make-or-break moment.” The group will see its finance ministers meet during the World Bank-IMF event, and its leaders will hold high-level talks at the end of the month in Italy.

LeCompte said he worries that if the World Bank and IMF meetings don’t spur governments into action now, the rollout will suffer further delays, potentially derailing WHO’s goal of vaccinating 70% of each nation’s population by the middle of next year.

Read more here.

Indonesian Newspaper Koran Jakarta quoted Eric LeCompte in an article discussing the International Monetary Fund's global economic growth estimates. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.

IMF: Developing Countries' Recovery Will Take Years

By Fredrikus Wolgabrink Sabini

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that global economic growth in 2021 will be slightly lower than the previous forecast in July which was projected to grow 6 percent. The downward revision was due to debt and inflation risks as well as different economic trends after the Covid-19 pandemic.

IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, in an online speech at Bocconi University, Italy, Tuesday (5/10), said the global economy was rebounding, but the recovery was limited due to the vaccination gap.

Meanwhile, Jubilee USA Network Executive Director, Eric LeCompte, said high debt, soaring food prices and a lack of vaccines are the biggest threats facing developing countries.

"We calculate the economic loss in the trillions if developing countries cannot access a vaccine," LeCompte said.

Read more here.

Indonesian Newspaper Republika quoted Eric LeCompte in an article discussing the International Monetary Fund's 2022 global economic growth projection. Read an excerpt below and the full article here.

IMF Cuts 2022 Global Economic Growth Projection

By Retno Wulandhari

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that global economic growth in 2021 will fall slightly below July's forecast of 6 percent. IMF head Kristalina Georgieva said the downgrade took into account the risks associated with debt, inflation and different economic trends after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Even as the global economy bounces back, according to Georgieva, the pandemic continues to limit recovery. One of the main obstacles is the high vaccination gap rate. This is due to limited access to vaccines.

Executive Director at Jubilee USA Network, Eric LeCompte, said high debt, soaring food prices and a lack of vaccines were the biggest threats facing developing countries. "We calculate the economic loss in the trillions if developing countries can't access a vaccine," Eric said.

Read more here.

The East African mentions Eric LeCompte on the civil society open letter to the IMF calling for more emergency currency allocations and redistribution of reserves from wealthy economies to developing ones. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.

Uhuru: Debt relief and vaccines crucial for recovery of developing countries

By Aggrey Mutambo

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday reiterated his call for supportive debt relief and vaccine access for poor countries, arguing they will be the two most important areas to help the world beat back the Covid-19 pandemic.

The President had been calling for vaccine equity and debt relief in most of his recent speeches, a stance now adopted by the African Union. Developing countries argue that debt relief, emergency funding more trade and access to vaccines will protect them in spite of poor health care systems.The International Monetary Fund, for example, created an emergency fund, known as the Special Drawing Rights, to help countries fight the pandemic crisis.

But critics have argued the SDRs worth $650 billion, which are based on quotas of IMF members, have benefited developed countries more. Last week, more than 250 civil society activists and organisations wrote an open letter to the IMF, asking that the allocation be increased to $3 trillion and that “economies are in less need of SDRs given their access to a wider array of monetary and financial tools for the response and recovery.”

They argued that it was “essential that the recent allocation be quickly followed by rechanneling a significant portion of advanced economies’ SDRs to developing countries,” an idea IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has agreed could help. “Wealthy countries received more than $400 billion of the relief aid while developing countries received around $235 billion,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA, one of the NGOs that appended their signature on the open letter. “Wealthy countries can't use the special currency and should donate it to poor countries being ravaged by the pandemic.”

Read more here.