Make poverty history: while G8 nations are basking in glory over their generosity, critics point out that the 'conditionalities' for debt relief are just part of the 'same old, same old.'

Catholic New Times, July 3, 2005

Make Poverty History is the big campaign for 2005.

The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is the world's largest-ever, anti-poverty coalition, spanning charities, faith groups, trade unions and grassroots movements across the world.

Launched in January 2005, the coalition, which includes Make Poverty History, U.K. and Plus d'Excuses in France, is pressing world leaders to make a breakthrough on poverty in 2005 in order to achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals and alleviate suffering in the world's poorest countries.

The global symbol of the coalition's demands is a white band. Campaigners and celebrities in 72 countries, including in all G8 countries, are turning up the heat on leaders in the run-up to the Live 8 concerts and a week of global action before the G8 summit in Scotland in July.

Hundreds of thousands of activists are expected to arrive in Gleneagles, Scotland, near Edinburgh for the July 6-8 meetings. Bus caravans are expected from all over Britain. Sir Bob Geldof, the principal organizer of the grassroots action, has asked churches, community centres and citizens to open their doors to the protesters.

Richard Curtis, a leading figure in the U.K.'s Make Poverty History campaign (and the screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral) said that the campaign had sent a million e-mails to Tony Blair, and told the BBC that this demonstrated that "this generation is not non-political and disengaged".

"The public and celebrities alike are piling on the pressure in a way that politicians cannot afford to ignore. The G8 is the opportunity for leaders to demonstrate--in actions not words--their commitment to fighting poverty. W e will be reminding leaders that anything less than this will be a failure" said GCAP spokesperson Coumba Toure, speaking from Mali.

Several years ago, global leaders agreed on eight goals which would halve world poverty by 2015. All that was needed was cash, cooperation and commitment. Sadly, rich governments have been lacking in all three. Progress in meeting the goals has been slow and the result is that the gap between rich and poor countries is wider than ever.

Make Poverty History attempts to pressure the wealthy G8 nations to change this situation. Churches call it the "preferential option for the poor." The demands are straightforward: trade justice, debt cancellation and more and better aid.

On June 11, the finance ministers of the G8 countries, meeting in London, agreed to cancel the estimated US$40billion debt owed to international lenders by 18 countries. Most countries had already paid off the principal of the loans but the interest still owed was killing them.

African countries currently spend up to 40 percent of their budgets on debt interest according to DATA, a lobby group partially funded by Irish rocker, Bono. British minister Gordon Brown used as an example, the country of Malawi, where one in five persons are HIV-positive, the government spends more on interest than on health, and Zambia, where 40 per cent of women are illiterate, more money is spent on interest than education.

To further complicate matters, the World Bank confirmed that a staggering US$20 billion was being creamed off global aid budgets by "consultants." Peter Hardstaff of the World Development Movement said, "The shocking figure is not just a waste of aid, but is a back-door route by the U.S. and U.K. to force free-market policies which have demonstrably failed in so many poor countries. At present about 3 billion people live on less than a toonie ($2) per day."

Latest news

Henry Northover, of Make Poverty History added, "This deal is a good start, but we are still a long way from making poverty history. We must see an end to the welfare-ist approach to Africa. Debt is just part of the solution. W e must now work towards doubling aid to $50 billion a year that is untied and more effectively targeted to reach those most in need."

A series of open letters from global celebrities to the G8 Finance Ministers were published in some of the most influential newspapers in the world in June, calling for decisive action by world leaders to tackle poverty once and for all.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bob Geldof, Mary Robinson, Bono, author Margaret Atwood, actors George Clooney and Brad Pitt and Nobel Prize Winners John Polanyi and James Orbinski, appeared in publications including France's Le Monde, Britain's The Guardian, Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the U.S.'s, All this is prologue to the G8 meeting in Gleneagles Scotland on July 6.

To further complicate matters for U.S. President George W. Bush, leading black pastors recently embarassed the administration by questioning the sincerity of its commitment to increasing aid to Africa. Rev. Eugene Rivers, one of the pastors, told the Los Angeles Times: "If we can give a US$140 billion tax-cut to the richest of the rich, who are not infrequently white, we can give US$25 billion to the poorest of the poor, who are not infrequently black."