Sol, one of the largest national newspapers in Portugal, talked with Eric LeCompte about the G20 postponing decisions on sovereign debt until the fall. Read the full story here.

G20 criticado por adiar decisão sobre extensão da moratória da dívida 

"Dada a gravidade da situação, esperávamos mais ação por parte do G20", resumiu o ativista Eric Lecompte, responsável pela ONG Jubileu USA Network, reagindo ao adiamento de uma decisão sobre a extensão da Iniciativa para a Suspensão do Serviço da Dívida (DSSI), anunciada em abril pelo G20 e que dura até final deste ano.

LeCompte disse que apesar da falta de um compromisso para a extensão da moratória, uma das principais expectativas sobre esta reunião do G20, liderado este ano pela Arábia Saudita, um dos aspetos positivos foi a linguagem, que é agora mais dura para com os credores privados.

"O comunicado do G20 diz que os líderes 'encorajaram fortemente' os credores privados a juntarem-se à iniciativa da suspensão da dívida, quando em abril apenas 'apelaram', e isto é importante porque alguns credores privados têm resistido a juntar-se a este processo de alívio da dívida", disse o ativista em declarações à agência de informação financeira Bloomberg.

Read more here.

Bloomberg and Yahoo Finance featured Eric LeCompte's analysis of what happened at the G20 finance minister meeting this weekend and what it means for debt relief efforts in the next few months. Read the full story here.

G-20 to Make Debt Relief Extension Call Closer to Year End

By Eric Martin and William Horobin

However, the commitments made at Saturday’s meeting may not yet go far enough, according to Jubilee USA Network, a nonprofit group that advocates for debt relief for smaller economies.

“Given the severity of the current crisis, we hoped we’d see more action,” Jubilee’s Eric LeCompte said in a statement.

LeCompte highlighted as a positive the G-20’s stronger language Saturday in its communique, where it “strongly encouraged” private creditors to join the debt suspension initiative. That was a more forceful appeal than in April, when the nations said they would “call on” the private sector to participate. That’s important because some private sector creditors have been resisting the debt relief process, he said.

Read more here.

Jubilee USA's letter to the G20 was spotlighted in numerous publications. Read an excerpt below and click here for a full story.

G20 finance officials poised to recommend extension of debt freeze

By Reuters

More than 200 religious, labor, human rights, environmental and development groups signed a separate letter spearheaded by Jubilee USA Network that was sent to G20 leaders, the White House and the International Monetary Fund this week.

"The G20 will make decisions this weekend that affect the survival of billions of vulnerable people confronting the pandemic," said Eric LeCompte, the group's executive director.

"We need to mobilize a lot more resources for people to confront the crisis."

Read more here.

Washington DC - Chaired by Saudi Arabia, G20 Finance Ministers met virtually and focused on the global health and economic impacts of the coronavirus. A communiqué issued by the Ministers suggested most decisions on the crisis will be made later in the year.

"The G20 Finance Ministers offered stronger language on the need for the private sector to participate in debt payment relief initiatives for the world's poorest countries," stated Jubilee USA Executive Director Eric LeCompte who monitors the G20. "This is important as some private sector creditors are resisting the debt relief process."

Jubilee USA organized a letter, signed by hundreds of organizations, to the G20 Finance Ministers ahead of their meeting calling for action in the face of the coronavirus crisis. The letter recommended expanded debt relief, more aid for developing countries, processes to curb tax evasion and corruption and enacting market and financial crisis protections. The letter was signed by more than 200 groups and included some of the largest religious, labor, human rights, development and environmental institutions. 

In April the G20 approved a plan for 73 developing countries to suspend debt payments to G20 countries. 42 countries applied for the program that offers debt relief until the end of 2020.

"Given the severity of the current crisis, we hoped we'd see more action, including extending the debt payment suspension initiative into next year," said LeCompte who serves on United Nations finance expert groups. "Decisions on further debt payment suspensions, permanent reductions of debt, trillions of dollars of needed aid and extending debt relief to more struggling countries will be left for meetings later this year."

In the Fall, the United Nations General Assembly meets. However the next round of decisions on coronavirus health and economic solutions most likely will take place at October IMF and World Bank meetings and November G20 meetings.

"The G20 wants to see more aid and financing options to consider from the IMF in the Fall. This is an allusion to accessing global reserve funds or what's known as the Special Drawing Rights," said LeCompte. "The Finance Ministers also emphasized again a strong commitment to moving forward global anti-money laundering laws."

Read the G20 Finance Minister Communiqué here.

Read Jubilee USA's press release on the G20 letter from hundreds of Religious, Labor, Human Rights, Environmental and Development Groups.

Read the Jubilee USA letter to the G20, IMF and White House signed by 213 groups.

Read Jubilee USA's March coronavirus response plan letter.

Read Jubilee USA Director Eric LeCompte's June 2nd address to the special session of the United Nations on coronavirus crisis solutions here.

Washington DC - Chaired by Saudi Arabia, G20 Finance Ministers met virtually and focused on the global health and economic impacts of the coronavirus. 

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development organization Jubilee USA Network, releases the following statement on the G20 Finance Minister Communiqué:

"The G20 Finance Ministers offered stronger language on the need for the private sector to participate in debt payment relief initiatives for the world's poorest countries.

"Given the severity of the current crisis, we hoped we'd see more action, including increasing the debt payment suspension initiative into next year.

"Decisions on further debt payment suspensions, permanent reductions of debt, trillions of dollars of needed aid and extending debt relief to more struggling countries will be left for meetings later this year.

"The G20 emphasized again it's strong commitment to moving forward global anti-money laundering laws."

Read the G20 Finance Minister Communiqué here. 

Jubilee USA Executive Director Eric LeCompte's comments were featured by hundreds of outlets Friday ahead of the G20 finance minister meeting being held on July 18. Read an excerpt below and find the full story here.

G-20 May Now Look Beyond Initial Debt Relief to Poor Nations

By Eric Martin and Marton Eder

However, charities including Oxfam said the relief so far to the world’s poorest nations is “woefully inadequate.” Saturday’s discussions could touch on extending the debt pause beyond 2020 and adding middle-income countries, said Eric LeCompte of Jubilee USA Network, a nonprofit group that advocates for debt relief for smaller economies.

France’s main priorities for the meeting will be to extend the moratorium on debt service for the poorest countries to 2021 and encourage international negotiations for digital and minimum taxation, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. Discussion regarding a new allocation of special drawing rights at the IMF will likely remain on the table, according to a finance ministry official.

A proposal to increase these reserve assets, which would boost the IMF’s lending power, was blocked by the U.S. at the lender’s April meeting. However, China’s central bank governor on Thursday called on the IMF to use a new issue of SDRs to help developing countries.

Read more here.

Friends,

217 - thats the number of the largest religious bodies in the United States and Africa joined by the biggest labor unions, human rights, environmental and anti-poverty groups who signed our Jubilee USA letter to the G20. 

Our G20 letter calls for debt cancellation for developing countries, more aid for countries, new processes to prevent financial crisis and measures that confront tax evasion and corruption.

Yesterday - ahead of this weekend's G20 Finance Minister Meeting, we delivered those Jubilee USA letters, signed by groups representing hundreds of millions of people, to the G20, IMF and White House.

Tonight we will be delivering petitions to the G20, ahead of their meeting, signed by thousands of individuals, religious leaders, economists and advocates. You have until 9:00 PM tonight to sign the petition before our delivery. Please add your name now.

Ahead of tomorrow's meetings, Jubilee USA Executive Director Eric LeCompte shares our views and coronavirus crisis campaign efforts in thousands of global news outlets, including Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance and Economia.

The letters we sent yesterday are the latest stage of our coronavirus crisis campaign efforts we launched in February. You can read more about those efforts in Eric's e-mail below.

Counting their membership in the millions, labor unions including the United Steelworkers (USW), American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) joined faith groups in the G20 letter. Other signers include human rights organizations like Amnesty International USA and Pax Christi and also environmental advocates ranging from Amazon Watch to Friends of the Earth. Development groups were represented on the Jubilee USA letter such as Islamic Relief, American Jewish World Service, American Friends Service Committee, Bread for the World, Action Aid, Oxfam, RESULTS and Health Gap.

Major religious institutions led the Jubilee USA G20 letter including: The All Africa Conference of Churches, National Council of Churches, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist and United Church of Christ Churches. The Unitarian Universalist Association and the largest representations of Quaker communities and Buddhist consortiums are on the letter. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a separate joint letter with Jubilee USA and Pope Francis continues to push for measures outlined in the statement to the G20. You can read the full list of letter signers here.

The majority of signers on the letter were churches, synagogues, dioceses and religious congregations representing small towns and urban centers.

To be counted in our G20 petitions signed by individuals, economists and religious leaders - you must sign tonight.

The United Nations estimates that 265 million more people are facing famine due to the coronavirus crisis. The International Labor Organization says 400 million jobs will be wiped out and the IMF asserts the current economic crisis rivals the Great Depression.

Jubilee USA began meeting with world leaders and generating tens of thousands of messages on the crisis in February. In March, the leadership of Jubilee USA outlined a coronavirus response plan for the IMF and G20.

In April, the IMF and G20 agreed to cancel 6 months of debt payments for the 25 poorest countries and create a plan for 73 countries to suspend debt payments for 2020.

This weekend the G20 considers increasing more debt relief for countries already benefiting and other developing countries who've been left out so far. The private sector has resisted participating and that's on the G20 agenda too. Finally they'll discuss accessing trillions of dollars in global reserve funds or the Special Drawing Rights. These are resources we need immediately.

Please join us and sign our petition before we send it to the G20 tonight.

Gratefully,

Zachary Conti
Director of Policy and Advocacy

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eric LeCompte, Jubilee USA Network <coord@jubileeusa.org>
Date: Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:24 PM
Subject: G20 COVID: Aid, Debt, Transparency Decisions

Friends,

Eric LeCompte
Executive Director

Twitter: @Eric_LeCompte
www.jubileeusa.org/support-us

Washington DC - Ahead of Saturday's G20 Finance Minister meetings, a wide range of 213 organizations is pressing for more action to confront the global health and economic impacts of the coronavirus. The largest religious bodies in the United States and Africa were joined by the biggest labor unions, human rights, environmental and anti-poverty groups in letters sent to the G20, IMF and White House.

In the letters, the groups call for debt cancellation for developing countries, more aid for countries, new processes to prevent financial crisis and measures that confront tax evasion and corruption.

"The coronavirus destroys lives and livelihoods and a growing coalition wants to see stronger action on the current crisis and new rules to stop future crises," noted Eric LeCompte the Executive Director of the religious organization that organized the G20 letter, Jubilee USA Network. "Many of the faith groups who signed the letter never signed a letter like this before. The impact of this crisis on vulnerable people propels communities to call for urgent action."

Counting their membership in the millions, labor unions including the United Steelworkers (USW), American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) joined the faith groups in the G20 letter. Other signers include Human Rights organizations like Amnesty International USA and Pax Christi and also environmental advocates ranging from Amazon Watch to Friends of the Earth. Development groups were represented on the Jubilee USA letter such as American Jewish World Service, American Friends Service Committee, Bread for the World, Action Aid, Oxfam, Islamic Relief USA, RESULTS and Health Gap.

Major religious institutions led the Jubilee USA G20 letter including: The All Africa Conference of Churches, National Council of Churches, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist and United Church of Christ Churches. The Unitarian Universalist Association and the largest representations of Quaker communities and Buddhist consortiums are on the letter. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a separate joint letter with Jubilee USA and Pope Francis continues to push for measures outlined in the statement to the G20.

The majority of signers on the letter were churches, synagogues, dioceses and religious congregations representing small towns and urban centers. 

"The G20 will make decisions this weekend that affect the survival of billions of vulnerable people confronting the pandemic," stated LeCompte who serves on United Nations finance expert groups. "We've seen progress in getting aid to many people that need it, but we need to mobilize a lot more resources for people to confront the crisis."

The United Nations estimates that 265 million more people are facing famine due to the coronavirus crisis. The International Labor Organization says 400 million jobs will be wiped out and the IMF asserts the current economic crisis rivals the Great Depression.

Jubilee USA began meeting with world leaders and generating tens of thousands of messages on the crisis in February. In March, the leadership of Jubilee USA outlined a coronavirus response plan for the IMF and G20.

In April, the IMF and G20 agreed to cancel 6 months of debt payments for the 25 poorest countries and create a plan for 73 countries to suspend debt payments for 2020.

"This weekend the G20 considers increasing more debt relief for countries already benefiting and other developing countries who've been left out so far," stated LeCompte. "The private sector has resisted participating and that's on the G20 agenda too. Finally they'll discuss accessing trillions of dollars in global reserve funds or the Special Drawing Rights. These are resources we need immediately."

Read the Jubilee USA letter to the G20, IMF and White House signed by 213 groups.

Read Jubilee USA's March coronavirus response plan letter.

Read Jubilee USA Director Eric LeCompte's June 2nd address to the special session of the United Nations on coronavirus crisis solutions here.

Friends,

This week the G20 considers our Jubilee USA recommendations to protect all of us from financial crisis and deal with the global health and economic impacts of the coronavirus.

Since February we won a lot because you generated thousands of messages to the G20, IMF and the White House. This means that aid is being delivered to some of the world's poorest countries who have between zero and 50 critical care units to address the coronavirus.

We won 6 months of debt cancellation for the 25 poorest countries and 73 countries can stop debt payments for 2020.

Because of your petitions and our advocacy meetings with the White House and Finance Ministers we know that this week's G20 meeting will focus on expanding debt relief beyond 2020, including more developing countries, compelling the private sector to be involved and accessing trillions of dollars in global reserve funds (Special Drawing Rights).

Please join me and sign our G20 petition asking they cancel debt so developing countries can bolster healthcare, deliver more resources so people can survive the crisis and put in place crucial financial crisis, transparency and market protections - so we can prevent the next crisis.

Your petitions will accompany a letter we organized with nearly 150 organizations including religious, anti-poverty, labor and Muslim, Christian and Jewish organizations and faith communities.

Signers include: The All Africa Conference of Churches, The Episcopal Church, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The National Council of Churches, The Presbyterian Church, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, The Unitarian Universalist Association, The United Church of Christ and The United Methodist Church. Pope Francis declared he supports our efforts and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a separate joint statement with Jubilee USA. The AFL-CIO and Oxfam joined our urgent letter. Our letter received press coverage in thousands of global news outlets like Fox News and the New York Times.

This week the International Trade Union Confederation and International Chamber of Congress pressed the G20 on our Jubilee USA proposals as well.

More than 100 world leaders and former heads of state endorsed our recommendations. Will you join the thousands who already signed our G20 petition?

Since February, our Jubilee USA team worked around the clock to move forward solutions to the coronavirus crisis - a crisis the IMF says rivals the Great Depression. 

After our victories in April and May - Her Excellency Mona Juul, the United Nations Economic and Social Council President, asked that Jubilee USA present coronavirus crisis solutions at a special June United Nations session for world leaders. Our UN speech was covered in more then 10,000 newspapers and television shows from CNN to the Associated Press. These are the recommendations that the G20 considers this weekend.

Please join the thousands who already signed our coronavirus petition to the G20.

Thanks for your partnership,

Eric LeCompte
Executive Director

Twitter: @Eric_LeCompte
www.jubileeusa.org/support-us

Washington DC - The G20 and Paris Forum convened a global virtual High-Level Ministerial conference for 39 countries focused on the economic, debt and development impacts of the coronavirus. 

"The meeting offered recommendations to the G20 as it tries to build consensus on next steps for dealing with the coronavirus economic impacts," noted Eric LeCompte, a United Nations finance expert and the Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA. "G20 Finance Ministers meet next week and will move forward decisions on debt relief and development aid for developing countries."

In April, the G20 moved forward a plan to suspend debt payments for 73 of the world's poorest countries. 41 of the 73 countries are accepting the relief.

"Next week's G20 meeting will focus on extending the debt payment suspension into 2021," said LeCompte. "While suspending the debt payments will generate billion of dollars for poor countries to deal with the coronavirus, the G20 plan still faces challenges. Not all G20 countries are fully participating and the private sector and commercial banks won't commit to join in debt relief measures. We also have the whole category of developing Middle Income Countries who are left out of debt relief plans."

The July 8th, High-Level Ministerial Conference, "Tackling the COVID-19 Crisis, Restoring Sustainable Capital Flows and Robust Financing for Development," included speeches from the heads of the IMF and World Bank. The World Bank's David Malpass called on China's Development Bank to join the debt suspension and he noted that some countries will need debts permanently reduced. Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the IMF, urged world leaders to start to look more closely at the challenges that Middle Income Countries like tourism dependent small island states face.

"The coronavirus crisis is destroying livelihoods and economies," noted LeCompte. "Expanding and increasing debt relief so people can survive the economic and health impacts of the crisis is essential for the developing world."

Read the conference agenda as a PDF here.

Bond Buyer features Eric LeCompte in their article on Puerto Rico's economy. Read more here.

Puerto Rico experts, participants discuss its future

By: Robert Slavin

Jubilee USA Network Executive Director Eric LeCompte also focused on the island’s children, saying that budgets must reduce the high child poverty rate on the island.

Many said the future was unclear.

Read more here.