---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 11:43:52 -0800
From: David Mozer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: wa-afr <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [wa-afr-network] FW: ACTION: Call Congress Today for Debt Relief
Supplimental
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2000 10:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject: ACTION: Call Congress Today for Debt Relief Supplimental
Dear ADNA members,
Following find the most recent action alert on debt relief and
Mozambique in particular from Bread for the World. Please share
this widely and rapidly.
Regards,
Vicki Ferguson
ADNA Communications Facilitator
From Bread for the World
ACTION ALERT: Mozambique and Debt Relief
First, the bottom line:
The House Foreign Operations Sub-committee majority staff has
NOT inlcuded the Clinton Administration's $210m budget request to
fund the HIPC Trust in the supplemental bill which will be marked up
in the House full committee this week. This means the much talked
about debt relief process for the Hightly Indebted Poor Countries for
Afirca (HIPC) will be stalled. Almost two thirds of the countries
eligible under this plan are in sub-Saharan Africa. Mozambique
stands to receive help from the HIPC plan critical to that country's
reconstruction long after the floods recede and TV news from
Mozambique fades to black.
SO YOU SAY THAT YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING IN
SOLIDARITY WITH THE MOZAMBICAN PEOPLE......
1. Connect with one of the emergency assistance agencies working
on the ground in Mozambique and make a cash contribution today.
A listing is posted on
http://www.africapolicy.org/action/floods.htm
2. Call your member of Congress today (202-225-3121) and ask
him/her to support a supplemental appropriation of $210 million for
debt relief to help the regional development banks do their part in the
international debt plan.
BACKGROUND:
The devastating floods in Mozambique have prompted people to find as
many ways as possible to come to that country's aid. One important issue
that affects the country's ability to respond to the devastation and begin
the rebuilding process is debt. As it turns out, debt relief that would
assist Mozambique is before the U.S. Congress right now. Congress has
the opportunity to support Mozambique's recovery through a bill already
on the congressional calendar. Supplemental appropriations for the
current budget (2000) are scheduled for votes over the next several
weeks and could provide Mozambique with the debt relief it is already set
to receive.
The Clinton Administration's supplemental request included $210
million for debt relief. Unfortunately neither the House nor Senate
leadership's version of the supplemental bill actually under consideration
in Congress includes any money for debt relief.
The House Appropriations committee is scheduled to take up a
supplemental appropriations bill this Thursday, March 9. The full House
is scheduled to vote on the supplemental the following Thursday, March
16. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the
supplemental bill the week of March 20.
Points to make in your letter or telephone call:
The U.S. $210 million contribution will help nearly a dozen countries
including Mozambique that will be eligible for debt relief this spring.
A delay in funding for the African Development bank and the other
regional development banks will mean a delay in the recovery effort of
Mozambique.
Mozambique is expected to qualify for enhanced debt relief under the
Cologne debt plan sometime in the next month. Under the old (1996)
HIPC debt plan Mozambique's debt service payments were over 100
million per year ($2 million per week). Under the terms of the
international debt agreement reached in Cologne last June,
Mozambique's debt service would be reduced to about $62 million per
year (less than $1.1 million per week), less than 10 percent of their
revenues.
Mozambique owes about $6 billion dollars to all creditors, multilateral
and bilateral. Of this, the United States is owed $48 million, less than 1
percent of the total. Moreover, under the new international debt plan, the
United States pledged to forgive 100 percent of the bilateral debt owed
to it by 33 of the world's poorest countries, including Mozambique.
Treasury Secretary Larry Summers reaffirmed that commitment in a
news conference on March 7.
More than 62 percent of Mozambique's debt is owed to other bilateral
(country) creditors, approximately $3.7 billion dollars. Most of
Mozambique's debt is owed to Russia, Italy and France.
About one third of Mozambique's debt is owed to multilateral creditors,
including the World Bank ($1.2 billion or 20 percent), the African
Development Bank and other multilateral banks ($466 million or 8
percent), and the IMF (190 million dollars or 3.2 percent of the total).
For recent news coverage see 3/8/00 Boston Globe article at
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/068/na...ake_lead_in_providing_debt
_reliefP.shtml
"US urged to take lead in providing debt relief" page A2
****
Bread for the World
1100 Wayne Ave. #1000
Silver Spring, MD 20910
tel: 301-608-2400
fax: 301-608-2401
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
****
Message posted by request to the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA)
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