Millennium Development Goals

The Damages of Debt

Africa is the most impoverished region in the world today but it subsidizes the wealthy economies of the world through a net transfer of wealth in the form of payments for illegitimate debts. More money flows out of Africa each year in the form of debt service payments, than goes into Africa in the form of aid. Over the past 3 decades African governments have already repaid more than they have borrowed.

A majority of Africa’s people are forced to live on less than $2 a day and the United Nations reports that Africa will not reach the “Millennium Development Goal” of reducing poverty levels by half for another 150 years if current trends continue. Nevertheless, Africa pays more each year to wealthy creditor institutions than it can spend on healthcare or education for its own people.

Debt payments subordinate the interests of African people to those of rich creditors. This asymmetry of power also perpetuates African countries’ lack of freedom to pursue economic policies of their choosing and diminishes their sovereignty. Servicing massive external debts, moreover, discourages both domestic and foreign investment and stifles economic growth.

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