There’s been a massive response to the call to cancel debts to help fight coronavirus in the global south.
More than 100 organisations around the world have backed the campaign, and hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions in many countries. Plus,high-profile figures from former prime ministers to the Pope have started to speak up in support.
Across Africa, Asia and Latin America, low-income countries urgently need to scale up their health spending in the face of this pandemic. But they’re due to spend over $40 billion on debt payments in 2020 alone. This is money that could be used now to save lives as this terrible virus continues to spread.
In Mali, the country has 20 ventilators for a population of 19 million. In Haiti, there are 64 ventilators to cover 11 million people. Kenya has 130 beds in intensive care units, for 50 million people. We have 4,000 ICUs in the UK – and we all know it’s not enough.
Tomorrow, G20 finance ministers are holding a virtual meeting as part of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings this week. That’s why today, we’re joining the Jubilee Debt Campaign and allies from across the world in a day of action to #CancelTheDebt.
Can you help by signing our petition to the UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, calling for debt cancellation now?
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