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What happened to Debt at the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development?

Although the recently launched Irish Government Debt Policy predicted that Debt was to be 'an important topic at Johannesburg', there was no new breakthrough on debt at the summit. When speaking at the Summit, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, stated Ireland's commitment, in principle, to debt cancellation, but he did however, not make any concrete proposals on action to achieve this.

The original Summit Declaration had included a section that linked debt reduction with achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The Millenium Development Goals were set at the UN's General Assembly 2000. These include:

  • Halving poverty

  • Achieving universal primary education

  • Reducing child mortality by two thirds by the year 2015

Debt cancellation is one possible source of funding to help countries achieve these goals. However, and in a very disappointing development, this section was suddenly dropped during the negotiations in the preparation of the final Summit Declaration.

The removal of the link with the Millennium Development Goals means that:

  • There are no targets for progressing debt cancellation, just vague, general statements

  • Debt reduction will continue to be based on the ratio of debt to exports rather than on human development goals such as life expectancy, access to health, education and clean water.

Debt campaigners in Johannesburg reported that the EU was unwilling to press for the statement linking debt reduction with the Millennium Development Goals to be reinstated.

In its recently launched debt policy, the Irish Government expresses serious concern that human development is not taken into account when assessing debt reduction. The Irish policy highlights in particular that the impact of HIV/AIDS should be taken into account stating: "There is a strong case that the debts of these countries should be cancelled as soon as possible".

Minister Tom Kitt made a commitment that the Irish government would promote debt cancellation strongly at the Summit. Our question for the Government is: What efforts did you make to keep the link between debt reduction and human development in the Summit Declaration?


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