Instituto Humanitas Unisinos in Brazil featured Eric LeCompte in an article on President Biden's meeting with Pope Francis. Read the excerpt below and the full article here.

Biden praises Pope Francis as "the foremost warrior for peace"

Eric LeCompte , executive director of Jubilee USA Network , told NCR that the meeting between Biden  and Francisco is "crucial" as it highlights "the two most important and open leaders in global policy change before the G20 ."

"The most important decisions on climate change in our lives will be made over the next five years in the G20 and the International Monetary Fund ," said LeCompte . On behalf of Jubilee USA , an interfaith organization that advocates debt relief for countries development, he praised the Biden administration , saying the United States "is now the leading government in responding to the global climate crisis."

LeCompte said the Biden administration was the first to require all government agency spending to comply with its climate mitigation policies.

“No one else in the G20 has really started to do this yet,” he said, adding that he believes Biden's meeting with the pope offers a “united front” to pressure other presidents and prime ministers to do the same.

Read the full article here.

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.

286 Organizations Call G20 to More Action

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.

El Independiente covers Jubilee USA Network and Latindadd's Pandemic Vulnerability Map and quotes Eric LeCompte and Aldo Caliari on the pandemic's effects in the Caribbean and Latin America. Read an excerpt below and the full article here. 

Inequality and low income: the main vulnerabilities of Paraguay

In a study carried out by the Latin American Network for Economic and Social Justice (Latindadd), Paraguay's main vulnerabilities were detected as low social coverage, unequal access to new technologies, low hospital capacity, a weak anti-money laundering system, and low population income.

The so-called “Vulnerability Map” analyzes the conditions in 24 countries in the region and takes into account 12 dimensions, among which the fiscal situation, public debt, health system, employment, poverty and inequality stand out.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA, said, "this 'Vulnerability Map' shows that a simple focus on historical median income levels leaves us all in the dark."

"Dependence on tourism activity — which the pandemic decimated — pre-existing levels of poverty and inequality, large informal sectors, and narrow tax bases are some of the factors that explain why the pandemic affected developing countries the most. We hope that presenting the data in this way provides a clearer picture of the challenges in developing countries,” explained LeCompte.

In turn, Aldo Caliari, Director of Policy at Jubilee USA, stated that "we need more action by rich countries so that developing countries can face the global crisis."

Read more here. 

Eric LeCompte and Aldo Caliari were quoted in an article by Prensa Latina discussing the vulnerability of Latin America and the Caribbean to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read an excerpt below and read the full article here. 

Latin America and the Caribbean, the region most affected by Covid-19

Today, the region of Latin America and the Caribbean is the most affected in the world by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report by two non-governmental organizations.

The executive director of Jubilee USA, Eric LeCompte, pointed out that the pandemic affected Latin America and the Caribbean more due to factors such as dependence on tourism, pre-existing levels of poverty and inequality, large informal sectors and narrow tax bases. 

Le Compte warned that only countries categorized by the World Bank as being low-income can access emergency debt relief and other measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

For Latindadd and Jubilee, that approach may dangerously underestimate how middle-income countries are suffering from damage caused by the pandemic. "We need more action from rich countries so that developing countries can face the crisis," said Jubilee USA Policy Director Aldo Caliari.

Read more here.