Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, speaking from London yesterday, said that he "cautiously welcomes" the announcement by the G-8 industrialised nations to write off more than R265 billion ($40 billion) of African debt.

"It is very encouraging to see this progress after all our years of campaigning for debt relief," said the Archbishop. He is in London to address a seminar at the London School of Economics on Wednesday [15.06] on, among other things, economic injustice which, he says, "is the greatest threat to global human well-being."

In 1998 Archbishop Ndungane was appointed patron of Jubilee 2000, an international organisation which focused on promoting the cancellation of the debts owed by poorer developing countries to developed countries. Jubilee 2000 has since been succeeded by other campaign organisations worldwide. The Archbishop has spent a large amount of his time in office so far speaking nationally and internationally about the need for forgiveness of these debts. "These debts are literally unpayable. The debtor countries will never be able to repay them despite outlaying significant funds every year - funds that are urgently needed for basic human requirements including clean water, food, shelter and basic education. Debt creates a cycle of poverty that is inescapable," said the Archbishop.

"I am hoping that this latest write-off of debt will pave the way for even more progress and improvements as the G-8 countries work together. Our objective is a clean slate - a total cancellation of odious and unpayable debts owed by African countries. This will enable the governments of these developing countries to determine priorities for the sustainable livelihoods of all people living in their countries. They will now be able to channel this money into much-needed human development programmes," he said. "I am also hoping that the G-8 governments will not be prescriptive to African governments as to how and how not to use the money that has been freed up. Of course we recognise that developing countries must use this money responsibly in caring for their own people and of course the onus is on them to put the money to good use and maintain proper fiscal discipline, but you cannot give with one hand while taking back with another," said Archbishop Ndungane.

"I would like to stress that this debt-forgiveness needs to go hand-in-hand with fair trade practices in future. Africa is not holding out a begging bowl here. All we are asking for is trade justice because, in the long run, it is not aid but equitable trade practices which places us on an equal footing with so-called first world countries."

The Archbishop said that it is equally important that a significant commitment is made by the G-8 countries to address the issue of climate change. "A failure to pay attention to pressing environmental factors now, may lead to an uncontrollable spiral of global events that will make all this talk of debt-relief and fair trade merely academic in the next decade or two."

"This significant debt write-off will certainly encourage us to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving world poverty by 2015," said Archbishop Ndungane, "but there is still a long road to travel in our quest for a world where success is measured in quality of life and not quantity of dollars."