JUBILEE DEBT CAMPAIGN ACTION ALERT

Last year your campaigning helped get Hilary Benn to take a stand at the World Bank. He withheld £50 million in protest over the conditions attached to aid and debt relief, which made the Bank sit
up and take notice. But not enough has changed on the ground.

Now Douglas Alexander, the new International Development Secretary, must show that the UK is still serious. The World Bank is passing its hat around for more funds ahead of its annual meetings in Washington DC in October. Please ask him to keep up the pressure to end harmful
conditions:

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/strings

Since 2005, the UK has recognised that it is inappropriate to impose policies on poor countries as a condition of its own aid or debt relief. But most of the debt relief promised at Gleneagles in 2005
happens through the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and these institutions still routinely impose conditions on poor countries in exchange for debt relief, including forcing them to cut spending or privatise services.

Liberia, for example, desperately needs its debts of over $4 billion cancelled so that it can begin to re-build itself after long years of civil war. But right now it is being told it must carry out time-consuming structural reform before it can qualify for debt relief. The new President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has already introduced some reforms, based on the country's own priorities, but
debt relief needs to come now so the country can start to get back on its feet.

This pattern has been repeated time and again. Of the 43 countries promised debt relief by the G8, only 22 have so far received it, taking up to six years to qualify. Meanwhile, their people have been
suffering the effects of inescapable debt.

The World Bank is an international bank funded by rich countries. The UK gives it around £500 million every year, and Douglas Alexander sits on its Board. If the UK government is serious about ending harmful conditions, it must use its influence at the World Bank, including its financial leverage, to call for change.

Please join us in urging the UK government to push for an end to conditions that are devastating lives:

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/strings

Thank you!

Jubilee Debt Campaign

ps. If you want to find out more about the effects of these conditions, you can download our Cut the Strings report from our website: http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/?lid=2289