Jubilee 2025: Time for Religious Values to Inform Debt and Global Finance Architecture in Africa

October 25, 2024 | 8:30 - 10:00 am ET

Eric LeCompte
Executive Director, Jubilee USA Network

Lucy Esipila
 Executive Secretary, Caritas Africa

Alhaj Ahmed Abajobir
Country Director, Islamic Relief Ethiopia

 Bishop Rose Nereya Ayiemba Okeno
Fourth Diocesan Bishop, ACK Diocese of Butere, Anglican Church, Kenya

Rev. Cyril Fayose
General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana

As 2025 has been declared a Jubilee year, African faith-based groups and leaders champion policy proposals for a debt and development finance architecture that makes Jubilee’s promise of hope and renewal a reality. The event facilitates religious groups’ dialogue on their value-based approach to these issues with finance authorities. This webinar is the second event in the Road to Jubilee 2025 webinar series.

Sponsors: All Africa Conference of Churches, Caritas Africa, Islamic Relief, Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa, Jubilee USA Network, Bread for the World

Location: WBG I 2-220

Registration to the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings will be required to access the premises. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2024/06/26/civil-society-policy-forum-annual-meetings-2024#1

A Tale of Two Emergencies: Debt Policies of International Financial Institutions and Fiscal Injustices from a Global South Perspective

October 25, 2024 | 1:30 - 3:00 pm ET 

Jason Rosario Braganza
Executive Director, Afrodad

 Jane Nalunga
 Executive Director, SEATINI

 Eric LeCompte
Executive Director, Jubilee USA Network

 Samantha Kanoyangwa
Coordinator, African Sovereign Debt Justice Network

 Mark Flanagan
Deputy Director, Strategy, Policy, and Review Department, IMF

Debt policies by the international financial institutions have attracted intense controversy over the past decades, exemplified most recently by the popular discontent expressed in most of the Global South countries following several rounds of austerity measures proposals. Situating the Global South financial crisis, the session will explore how to effectively solve the debt and fiscal conditionality crises in a way that will allow these countries to advance development goals.

Sponsors: La Red Latinoamericana por Justicia Económica y Social (LATINDADD), African Forum and Network on Debt and Development – AFRODAD, Eurodad, The Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and Jubilee USA Network

Location: IMF HQ2-03B-768

Registration to the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings will be required to access the premises. No registration is needed to access the Zoom livestream, available at: https://imf.zoom.us/j/94315177099?pwd=SBsrwZbSO71z5MpaC4HOEG416vAQGM.1

Pretend and Extend, or #CancelTheDebt? A Fork in the Road for the Debt Crisis

October 25, 2024 | 5:30 - 7:00 pm ET 

Patricia Miranda 
Global Advocacy Director, LATINDADD

Matthew Martin
Director, Development Finance International

Martín Guzmán
 Professor of Economics, Columbia University

Hassan Sherry
Senior Program and Research Officer, Arab NGO Network for Development

Allison Holland
Assistant Director and Division Chief, SPR Department IMF

The IMF insists there is no ‘systemic’ debt crisis requiring debt cancellation, but rather a ‘liquidity crisis’ requiring debt rescheduling. Civil society argues the opposite. What empirical bases best assess the extent of the crisis? What are the costs and risks of debt rescheduling and preemptive or post-default restructurings?

Sponsors: La Red Latinoamericana por Justicia Económica y Social (LATINDADD), African Forum and Network on Debt and Development – AFRODAD, Arab NGO Network for Development (annd), Arab Watch Coalition, Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), SLUG - Debt Justice Network Norway, Debt Justice, Development Finance International (DFI), Eurodad, The Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), MENA Fem Movement for Economic, Development and Ecological Justice, Oxfam and Jubilee USA Network

Location: HQ2-03B-768B

Registration to the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings will be required to access the premises. No registration is needed to access the Zoom livestream, available at: https://imf.zoom.us/j/94281756423?pwd=RuWPaCfkXpHI1SVOElltYJ5rvc8o1H.1

Petition to G7 and G20 Finance Ministers signed by 106 African Religious Leaders from 19 countries. Read the letter here.

Ahead of IMF, World Bank and G20 Meetings, IMF Head Delivers Views on Global Economy

"...our forecasts point to an unforgiving combination of low growth and high debt—a difficult future," stated IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaking ahead of the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Georgieva noted that public debt is higher than before the pandemic and in spite of declining inflation, prices remain high.

“While we experience lower inflation, prices for groceries will remain high for all of us,” said Eric LeCompte the Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network who attends the meetings. “Not enough jobs, high debt payments and food prices are impacting the poor the most.”

The role of the IMF in debt relief and restructurings will be on the agenda at the meetings. In June, Pope Francis called for urgent action on debt forgiveness and new international vehicles to address debt crises, in the lead up to the Jubilee 2025 year.

"Debating solutions for debt crises, that affect most developing countries, dominates the agenda of the upcoming meetings," shared LeCompte.

Georgieva noted that expanding conflicts could destabilize markets and economies and countries are making hard choices to address climate change or poverty.

"In addition to the loss of life because of war, there is a global human cost as war derails cooperation for global agreements on poverty, jobs and climate issues," explained LeCompte. "Georgieva stressed the stark choices that too many countries face to pay debt, address climate challenges or build schools."

Delivering her first curtain-raiser speech since members appointed Georgieva to a second term at the helm of the institution, she raised the need to regulate artificial intelligence as it could have a role in managing aspects of the global economy.

"Given artificial intelligence is being raised as a way to strengthen the economy, it is crucial that all of us participate in the decisions of if, how and where AI is used and who controls AI," said LeCompte. 

Pope Francis addressed the recent G7 Summit on the ethical implication of artificial intelligence.

The managing director's speech alluded to recent IMF decisions lowering high surcharges that countries pay on loans and increasing capacity to lend at zero percent interest rate to the poorest countries.

“Surcharges punish countries experiencing a crisis,” noted LeCompte. “The decision to lower the surcharges is a necessary step, but more action on surcharges is needed.”

Read Kristalina Georgieva's curtain-raiser speech here.

Read Pope Francis' June address on the focus of Jubilee 2025 here.  

Read Jubilee USA Network and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York Office's "Debt Sustainability Assessments and their Role in the Global Financial Architecture" paper series here. 

Experts Present a Series of Papers to IMF Executive Directors Ahead of Annual Meetings

Online: October 1, 2024 | 10:00 - 11:00 am ET 

Sr. Eugenia Amporfu 
Catholic Religious, Daughters of the Most Holy Trinity, and Professor, Department of Economics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Rev. Charles Chilfuya
Jesuit Priest and Director, JCAM Justice and Ecology Office, The Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar (JCAM)

Dr. Mercy John
 National Secretary, the Women Wing, Christian Council of Nigeria

Eric LeCompte
Executive Director, Jubilee USA Network

Amir Ahmed Manghali
Regional Programs Coordinator for East Africa, Islamic Relief Worldwide

Sponsors: The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, the G20 Interfaith Forum, and Jubilee USA Network

Most countries face economic crises that are increasing poverty, inequality and hunger. Countries do not have the resources to deal with the impacts of climate change.

The webinar, is part of a series on priority appeals for action to the G20 from global religious institutions to address hunger, poverty, inequality and climate change. This November 2024, Brazil hosts the G20 presidential summit. This summit is the last before #Jubilee2025 declared by Pope Francis and interfaith leaders. Religious leaders and communities around the world are organizing to move the G20 to take urgent action. The coming Jubilee year arrives in a world facing unprecedented challenges and threats: a worsening climate, reversals in poverty reduction, rising inequality and intensifying wars and conflicts. 

Location: Online via Zoom.

RSVP by clicking here.

Jubilee USA partnered with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York to publish the Practice of Sovereign Debt Sustainability Analysis, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Martin Guzman.

The paper was the fourth to launch as part of a series that gathered practitioners to write on the theme "Debt Sustainability Assessments and their Role in the Global Financial Architecture." The papers will be chapters in a report to appear later in the summer. 

Practice of Sovereign Debt Sustainability Analysis, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Martin Guzman

Debt Sustainability Analyses (DSAs) are documents that hold serious implications for both debtors and creditors in sovereign debt negotiations. DSAs are not merely technical assessments of countries’ capacity to take on debt but are also grounded in political assumptions. A new study by Martín Guzmán and Joseph E. Stiglitz looks at the practice of the IMF’s debt sustainability analysis. They discuss how incentives and competing interests of stakeholders shape understandings of the debt sustainability constraints, endogenous effects of macroeconomics and fiscal policies, and beliefs on distribution of shocks. They identify areas for improvements in DSAs opportunity and publication timelines, dealing with the IMF’s role as a creditor, the treatment of foreign vs domestic currency debt, choosing correct discount factors, and the causes of over-optimism in baseline growth scenarios. 

Find the webpage for the "Debt Sustainability Assessments and their Role in the Global Financial Architecture" series here.

Rio de Janeiro Gathering Expected to Advance Development Bank, Tax and Climate Measures

The Religion News Service quotes Eric LeCompte on Jubilee 2025 and the previous Jubilee year, 2000. Read an excerpt below, or the full article here.

African faith leaders call for debt forgiveness in 2025 Jubilee year

By Fredrick Nzwili

The faith leaders point to the preceding Jubilee Year in 2000, when a coalition for debt forgiveness successfully freed $130 billion in debt relief in 38 countries and reduced poverty, they say.

“While we have moved forward critical debt relief and aid, we still need improvements in debt relief and aid processes,” said Eric LeCompte, executive director of the religious development organization Jubilee USA Network and a co-organizer of the convening of African leaders. “If we had the debt policies and institutions religious leaders called for 25 years ago, we would have tools to help address the climate and poverty crises.”

Those policies include improved access to permanent, rules-based processes that bind creditors into debt reductions and lower the costs of international crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic response to limit suffering in developing nations.  

Read more here. 

By Wycliff Kipsang

Faith leaders in Africa have become increasingly vocal as the continent faces the effects of multiple crises.

“We have allowed a divorce between traditional economic approaches and spiritual values,” Sheikh Ibrahim Lethome, of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, said. 

“As faith leaders, we have a role in guiding our communities so they can make those connections," he added.

The faith leaders called for responsible lending and borrowing principles, debt contract clauses that share climate and other risks and additional sources of finance that do not create debt in order to prevent new high indebtedness cycles.

“While we have moved forward critical debt relief and aid, we still need improvements in debt relief and aid processes,” Eric LeCompte, executive director of the religious development organisation Jubilee USA Network and a co-organiser of the convening of African leaders, said. 

Jena is a diverse community of faith-inspired Jesuit NGOs working towards an Africa where people can unlock their full potential, free from direct, cultural and structural violence.

Read more here.

Interfaith Africa Leaders Call for Changes to Global Economy during Jubilee 2025

Ahead of the Jubilee 2025 year that faith communities are celebrating worldwide, African interfaith leaders called for debt forgiveness and processes to support economic development. Representing Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and other Christian denominations, Muslims, national councils of churches, interreligious councils across 13 countries in Africa and regional religious organizations, the dignitaries released a statement to the G20, G7, United Nations, IMF and World Bank decisionmakers.

“Our countries … face again agonizing choices between spending and investing on their people and paying their creditors,” said the Africa religious leaders in their statement.“This year alone, Africa will spend $90 billion servicing public debt. Yet, the average African country’s combined spending on health, education and social protection is two-thirds of their debt payments.”

The religious leaders recalled the work of faith communities 25 years ago during the Jubilee 2000 year which led to the largest ever collective debt relief initiative. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries/Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (HIPC/MDRI) mobilized more than $130 billion in debt relief in 38 countries.

“Former President Julius Nyerere, of Tanzania, was among the first African political leaders raising their voices to question the need to put debt above the lives of our children,” said Rev. Canon Makunzo Moses Matonya, Secretary General of the Christian Council of Churches in Tanzania. “Unfortunately, we have seen debt rise to levels where we have to face that question again.”

Since 2010, African countries’ interest payments more than doubled, as a percentage of their revenue. At the same time, their combined spending on health, education, social protection and climate amount to two-thirds of debt payments.

“Early in the millennium, debt relief freed the fiscal space for important poverty reduction investments,” said Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, in Nigeria. “An important focus for us, as then, is that we have good governance safeguards to protect public participation and accountability in the use of those funds.”

Faith leaders in Africa have become increasingly vocal as the continent faces the effects of multiple crises.

“We have allowed a divorce between traditional economic approaches and spiritual values,” said Sheikh Ibrahim Lethome, of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims. “As faith leaders, we have a role in guiding our communities so they can make those connections.”

The faith leader statement called for responsible lending and borrowing principles, debt contract clauses that share climate and other risks, and additional sources of finance that do not create debt in order to prevent new high indebtedness cycles.

“While we have moved forward critical debt relief and aid, we still need need improvements in debt relief and aid processes,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development organization Jubilee USA Network, and a co-organizer of the convening of African leaders. “If we had the debt policies and institutions religious leaders called for 25 years ago, we would have tools to help address the climate and poverty crises.”

Read the Africa Religious Leaders' "Heralding a Debt Jubilee in 2025" statement here.

African interfaith leaders meeting convening in Kigali, Rwanda issued a statement calling for forgiving debts, implementing responsible lending and borrowing principles, mainstreaming risk sharing between creditors and debtors in debt contracts and scaling up access to resources for development in non-debt-creating and affordable terms.

Read the statement here.

Ahead of Jubilee 2025 Year, Pope Francis is First Pope in History to Join G7 Summit

 G7 leaders grapple with debt, climate and development crises in Italy from June 13th - 15th. In addition to the presidents and prime ministers hosted in the southern Italian region of Puglia, others in attendance include Pope Francis, the leaders of Brazil, Argentina, India, other developing countries and heads of the IMF, World Bank and United Nations.

The World Bank forecasts low growth rates, which will not be enough for developing countries to achieve key development goals.

“Over three billion people live in countries that spend more on debt payments than they spend on health and education,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development organization Jubilee USA Network. “The pandemic, wars, climate challenges and high interest rates force many countries into hard choices between paying debts and investing in their people.”

In advance of the Jubilee year of 2025, for the first time in history a Pope, Pope Francis, joins the G7 meeting. Last week the Pontiff echoed words of Pope Saint John Paul II in 2000 saying that the Jubilee year is an appropriate occasion to cancel international debt and create new processes to solve debt and development crises.

“The G7 is under a lot of pressure to address growing debt challenges in Africa and among developing countries,” noted LeCompte who was with Pope Francis during his remarks on debt at the Vatican last week. “If we can't resolve debt problems and support countries to raise more revenue, poor global growth forecasts will continue.”

The G7 will consider ways to increase lending and aid through development banks. In May, G7 finance ministers noted that agreements made so far will yield more than $25 billion a year in additional finance for climate and other challenges. The largest provider of aid to the poorest countries, the International Development Association, needs substantial resources this year to maintain aid and loans with low interest rates.

“Together with G7 leaders, we won more than $130 billion in debt relief since Jubilee 2000,” shared LeCompte. “While we achieved significant debt relief and won anti-corruption policies, we failed to institute the policies we needed to prevent and resolve future debt crises. In Jubilee 2025, we must win real solutions to prevent debt crises and solve development challenges.” 

Read Pope Francis' June 5th Address on Debt Crises, Development and Jubilee 2025 here.