Eric LeCompte was featured in an article by The Star about pandemic-related losses in developing countries. Read an excerpt below and the full article here. 

Poor countries to lose $12 trillion to corona by 2025 - UNCTAD

By Victor Amadala

Developing countries will lose $12 trillion through 2025 because they lack vaccines and the resources that wealthy countries use to stimulate their economies.

An analysis by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows poor countries will lose a decade of development and face slow economic recovery.

“The economic and health crisis is getting worse in most countries,” said Eric LeCompte, a UN finance expert and head of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network.

According to him, developing countries need vaccines and more resources to confront the pandemic. He added that without more aid, there is little chance that poor countries can meet development goals.

“Debt relief must move more quickly and must include all developing countries mired in this crisis,” noted LeCompte.

He added that developing countries that are categorized as middle-income countries, face the worst extreme poverty increases and job losses because of the pandemic.

''Unfortunately, these countries are currently left out of processes to cut their debts,'' LeCompte said. 

Read more here. 

Washington DC – President Biden will convene a COVID-19 Summit during the UN General Assembly on September 22. The White House is asking world leaders, civil society, industry and philanthropists to make commitments to vaccinate the world, save lives and establish a health security financing mechanism.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development organization Jubilee USA Network, releases the following statement on the summit:

"The summit shows how important it is for us to act quickly.

"Biden knows that if we don't move global vaccine distribution forward this year, we'll lose more lives and our economy will suffer across the US and around the world."

More information about the summit can be found here.

Debt Increased by $500 Billion for Developing Countries in First Year of Pandemic

Washington DC – Improving tax collection raises needed resources for countries, noted Treasury Secretary Yellen at a virtual G7 finance ministers meeting. Yellen praised a July G20 agreement to curb corporate tax avoidance. The agreement is supported by 134 countries.

Eric LeCompte was covered in a Catholic Sun article about the recent "Poverty and COVID-19: Challenges and Solutions" webinar. Read an excerpt below and click here for the full article.

Richest nations urged to tackle financial turmoil worsened by pandemic

By Catholic News Service

Leaders from the world’s 20 largest economies are facing “make-or-break” decisions that can boost health care, reduce poverty and address the impact of climate change in developing nations when they meet in October in Italy, said the executive director of an alliance of faith-based development and debt relief advocacy organizations.

The questions facing the Group of 20 nations, or G-20, range from charting a path to ease the debt burden of poor countries to ensuring more equitable distribution of vaccines in response to the coronavirus pandemic, said Eric LeCompte, executive director of Washington-based Jubilee USA.

The key to recovery from the pandemic will be ensuring that decision-makers are accountable to follow through on what they say they are going to do, LeCompte explained during an Aug. 24 webinar, “Poverty and COVID-19: Challenges and Solutions,” sponsored by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.

LeCompte credited a United States plan to donate 500 million vaccines worldwide as a significant step toward the global economic recovery from the pandemic.

Read more here.

Eric LeCompte was featured in Crux on the IMF withholding emergency COVID funds from Afghanistan. Read an excerpt below and click here to read the full article.

IMF emergency COVID funds withheld from Afghanistan

By John Lavenburg

NEW YORK ­­– The International Monetary Fund on Aug. 23 withheld $455 million in emergency COVID-19 relief funding from Afghanistan, after the Taliban’s takeover of the country forced the organization to withhold its recognition of the Afghan government.

The withheld funds are a part of $650 billion in emergency reserve funds, known as the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights, that the organization made available to countries worldwide on Aug. 23.

Eric LeCompte, the executive director of Jubilee USA Network who has for months advocated for the creation of these funds alongside the U.S. bishops’ conference and other religious groups, told Crux that’s it’s unfortunate Afghanistan won’t receive the funds, but called it a “good move” for the IMF given the country’s unstable situation.

“There are real questions when you don’t know how the government is going to act, you don’t know who the authority is, or who’s in charge, where the IMF has to pull back its recognition of the government in order to ensure that money is being spent correctly,” LeCompte said. “So, unfortunately, it will have, I think, a negative impact on the people just as all of the questions around a government transition in Afghanistan right now.”

Eric LeCompte was quoted in Independent Online about the recent round of IMF Emergency Funding to South Africa for COVID-19. Read an excerpt below and click here for the full article. 

IMF provides R65bn emergency funding for SA to tackle Covid-19

By Siphelele Dludla

Last year, the IMF approved South Africa's request for emergency financial assistance of nearly R70bn under the Rapid Financing Instrument to meet the urgent balance of payment needs stemming from the outbreak of the pandemic.

However, there has been concern over the distribution of the SDRs as African nations will receive only $33bn when they require about $450bn to rebuild their economies, over the next five years.

More than $230bn of SDRs goes to developing low-income and middle-income countries, while the G7 countries will receive more than $280bn.

Director of American lobby group Jubilee USA Network, Eric LeCompte, on Friday, said it was unfair that about 40 percent of all of the emergency currency will be received by seven of the world's wealthiest countries.

“The G7 and other wealthy countries don't need these reserve funds and should donate them to developing countries for pandemic response,” LeCompte said.

Read more here.

The IMF creates $650 billion of Special Drawing Rights, the largest IMF emergency currency creation in history to fight the pandemic.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development organization Jubilee USA Network and a United Nations finance expert, releases the following statement on the Special Drawing Rights allocation:

"Developing countries can use these emergency funds to respond to the coronavirus crisis in their own countries.

"Countries can use the Special Drawing Rights to bolster social programs and provide healthcare.

See Jubilee USA's calculation of the approximate amount each country will receive in emergency SDRs currency here.

Read Jubilee USA's press release on the pandemic here.

Read Jubilee USA's IMF COVID response letter calling for Special Drawing Rights aid with nearly 270 signatories here.

Read the SDR letter signed by 240 global groups organized by Jubilee USA and Latindadd here.

Read Jubilee USA and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops joint letter to the White House on SDRs here.

Read about the March High-Level Treasury Secretary Yellen/Jubilee USA Network Religious Leader Roundtable that included SDRs here.

Jubilee USA Estimates Wealthy G7 Countries Receive $280 billion and Developing Countries Receive $230 billion from an IMF Currency Creation

Washington DC – As a cyclone hits Haiti, rescue workers searched for survivors from Saturday's 7.2 magnitude earthquake. At least 1300 are confirmed dead and thousands of homes destroyed in one of the world's poorest countries. 

“The earthquake devastation in Haiti is quite severe,” said Eric LeCompte a United Nations finance expert and the Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network. “Earthquake recovery is more difficult because nearly 60% of people live in poverty, high debts mean Haiti lacks resources to respond, the island still hasn't recovered from the last major earthquake 10 years ago and the COVID pandemic."

Haiti holds $2.2 billion in debt owed mostly to other countries and international financial institutions. Haiti’s debt to the IMF stands at $185 million.

As part of the IMF's COVID response, $17 million of Haiti's IMF debt payments were canceled through a process called the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) since April 2020. Unless the relief process is extended, Haiti resumes IMF debt payments in November. Eligibility for debt relief under the CCRT can include natural disasters.

"The international community must ensure that Haiti receives sufficient funds and aid," stated LeCompte. "Debt relief and supporting greater transparency in Haiti's government will be important for recovery."

A government audit in 2019 revealed lost monies, including $2 billion lost in an oil program between Haiti and Venezuela's PetroCaribe. In July, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated.

Haiti's 2010 earthquake killed 250,000 people and inflicted more than $8 billion in damages. Jubilee USA's 2010 efforts resulted in more than $1 billion in debt relief for Haiti and the creation of the CCRT. The predecessor of the CCRT was specifically established to first support Haiti's 2010 earthquake relief. In 2015, Ebola-hit African countries received debt relief through the CCRT. Last year, the IMF activated the debt relief process to respond to the pandemic in Haiti and 28 of the poorest countries.

Eric LeCompte spoke on WPKN's radio news show about the present need for Covid-19 vaccines in developing countries. Read an excerpt below and click here to listen to the show from 1:35:00 - 2:00:00.

Eric LeCompte of Jubilee USA on urgent need to distribute COVID vaccines to developing nations

Selected Statements from Eric LeCompte

"The reason that the G7, G20, and the World Trade Organization must act by November is to ensure that we have enough vaccine doses for the entire world."

"A big part of the problem has been dealing with the commitments that wealthy countries need to make when developing countries do not have the resources to combat the pandemic. It’s a real issue that the financing and aid has not been raised sooner by global decision makers."

"Without the aid and financing for pharmaceutical waivers so that countries in the developing world can have the resources to produce the vaccine on their own, we are not going to be able to stop what could be a perpetual economic crisis for the US as well as the developing world into the future."

Listen more here from 1:35:00 - 2:00:00.

The United Methodist Church reports on Jubilee USA's efforts for global vaccine access. Read an excerpt below and click here for the full article. 

The Need for Worldwide Vaccine Access: Citizens of many countries are unprotected as COVID-19 cases rise.

By Linda Bloom

United Methodist and other faith leaders view access to the COVID-19 vaccine as a human right, along with other basic health care needs.

But citizens in many countries remain unprotected from the coronavirus as multinational efforts to increase vaccine availability have fallen short. The total number of known coronavirus cases worldwide has now surpassed 200 million.

The Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe, general secretary of the General Board of Church and Society, was among the religious leaders who met virtually Aug. 4 with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to express support for waiving vaccine patents to increase COVID vaccine access for developing countries.

The meeting with Tai was organized by Jubilee USA and Eric LeCompte, its executive director, said Tai understood the urgency of the situation. “Waiving vaccine COVID patents will help produce more vaccines and save lives in the developing world,” he said.

Read more here.