Despite the pope's Jubilee Year 2000 call for reducing or forgiving international debt owed by developing countries, that may not be a guaranteed road to alleviating poor diet, health care and education caused by the heavy load of debt service governments carry.
That's the message three professionals, all UD graduates experienced with different facets of international debt, presented as part of "Breaking the Chains of World Debt," a two-day seminar held Sept. 29-30 at the University of Dayton. The seminar was sponsored by the Forum on Catholic Intellectual Tradition.
They focused on their personal viewpoints for making debt relief effective. "It's not a question of whether or why to forgive debt, but how we forgive debt to leverage change that will positively affect people's lives," said Ann Hudock, a 1990 UD graduate with 10 years of international development experience. She now serves as special assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs for the U.S. State Department.
Hudock, whose career in international development began with a yearlong commitment to working with nongovernmental organizations in Sierra Leone, urged "consultative and participatory mechanisms" be required so that resources freed up by debt relief be spent to improve lives.
"We need to follow, not lead, with respect to our counterparts in developing countries. That's morally right and makes good development sense," Hudock said. Sustainable improvements can only be assured by building consensus in-country for decisions that are made for using the resources, requiring a respect for the rule of law to combat corruption and ensuring that civil society has the capacity to monitor the government, she said.
Hudock emphasized the need for accountability from governments, relating charges that Cameroon, eligible for $2.7 billion in debt relief, has executed suspected criminals without trials and has been called "the most corrupt country in the world." Burkina Faso, a West African nation, has qualified for $700 million in debt relief despite charges that it actively supports rebels in Sierra Leone, she said.
Sustainability was a key message from Robert Saum, a 1984 UD graduate who majored in accounting and honed his service skills with Circle K. Saum combined his service and professional goals into a career in international development and now serves as senior financial management specialist for the Asia division loan department for the World Bank.
"Despite all discussions, a large part of the debt relief decision has been made and is already going on," Saum explained. Approval for debt relief has been made for 10 countries, and decisions on 10 more should be made by the end of the year, he said. As part of the process, developing countries applying for debt relief produce strategies on how to attack poverty and how to use the money freed up from servicing the debt.
Saum endorsed the idea of bolstering existing systems rather than creating new entities to distribute the resources. "To keep the chains of debt from coming back, ... (a country should) not create parallel systems to use the proceeds," he said. "It's critical that in-country systems are enhanced and their capacity increased to control the corruption and inefficiency as much as possible."
Also offering views on debt relief was Jo Marie Griesgraber, who is just settling into a new job as director of policy and advocacy for Oxfam America. A 1970 graduate of UD, Griesgraber formerly chaired the U.S Jubilee committee and has been working on debt issues for 11 years.
Griesgraber lobbied the audience to contact their Washington, D.C., representatives to urge appropriation of the $435 million commitment the U.S. has made to the World Bank. She advocated quick forgiveness. "Debt is not being paid, so we might as well write it off," she said. "We have to cancel debt quicker and get plans in place to deal with the middle-income countries who will not be able to stay current with their debt."
--Pam HuberThis page was created on
10/5/00 by Elizabeth Fischer.
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