AIDS response caught in a debt trap
SHOBHA SHUKLA - CNS
Restructure financial architecture by keeping human rights and people's wellbeing in the centre
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When countries are unable to repay debts, domestic financing for health, education or social protection gets slashed which disproportionately affects the already impoverished and marginalised communities in the Global South. Richer nations and financial institutions of the Global North have relentlessly imposed neoliberal policies that force Global South countries to prioritise debt repayment over human rights (or risk debt default) through a mix of regressive anti-people taxation, privatisation of public services, deregulation and cuts on public spending that undermine essential services guaranteed under international and national laws.
"African countries like Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, are paying the interest on their debts which exceeds 50% of government revenues. Half of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are either in debt distress or at high risk of it, as they are spending on an average, three times more to repay the interest on their debts than they do on health," said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima. "Sierra Leone spends 15 times more on servicing its public debt than on the health of its people."
It is critical to ensure that debt restructuring happens quickly and must have human rights and people's wellbeing in the centre.
Countries need to have enough money to put in health and development responses for the people.
Debt trap diplomacy has caused countries choke on debt
Archbishop Dr Thabo Makgoba of South Africa called for dropping the debt. "Debt is choking the countries of the Global South and denying us what we need for health and education. Please let us breathe."
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