A growing chorus of critics from around the world have increasingly questioned the efficacy of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)-promoted economic policy reforms. As a result, the two institutions renewed vows to fight poverty at their annual meetings in Prague 2000. Uganda is viewed as pivotal to the success of much-publicized efforts to reform the institutions and their policies. Over 41 countries are in the pipeline for the adoption of similar policies, but is Uganda a success?

The Problem
The on-going debt crisis of developing countries is integral to the perpetuation of an unjust economic system, one that concentrates wealth and power in the hands of a few. EVERY SINGLE DAY in 1999, $128 million was transferred from the poorest countries to the richest in debt repayments. For every one dollar in aid to developing countries, more than seven dollars comes back to rich countries in the form of debt servicing.

In Canada, CASA is being undertaken by a Steering Committee of non-governmental organizations from a

In Canada, CASA is being undertaken by a Steering Committee of non-governmental organizations from a number of sector

In Canada, CASA is being undertaken by a Steering Committee of non-governmental organizations from a number of sector

In Canada, CASA is being undertaken by a Steering Committee of non-governmental organizations from a num

7 February 2001

President Gustavo NoboaPalacio de Gobierno
García Moreno 1043
Quito
Ecuador

Dear President Noboa:

We write to you as representatives of civil-society organizations concernedabout the impact of IMF- and World Bank-imposed structural adjustment programs around the world. We are alarmed by reports of violent suppression by your government of the legitimate public protests against the most recently implemented adjustment program in Ecuador. We urge you to cease this repression and to launch a national dialogue to find lasting solutions to the pressing economic and social problems confronting your country.

The Dakar Declaration for the Total and Unconditional Cancellation of African and Third World Debt

Dakar 2000: From Resistance to Alternatives

Dakar, Senegal | 11-17 December 2000
 
We, participants at the "Dakar 2000 meeting for the cancellation of Third World debt", representing African people's civil societies, supported by civil societies from Latin America, Asia, Europe and North America, from the analysis of the debt issue, of structural adjustment plans (SAPs) and development.

Realize that:

1. Third World debt to the North is at once fraudulent, odious, illegal, immoral, illegitimate, obscene and genocidal;

The Dakar Manifesto
Africa: From Resistance to Alternatives

Dakar 2000: From Resistance to Alternatives

Dakar, Senegal, 11-17 December 2000 

The Dakar 2000 conference brought together leaders of NGOs and social movements from all over Africa to analyze the debt crisis and the impacts of IMF/World Bank Structural Adjustment Programmes on African populations. Conference participants also considered strategies for resistance to the neoliberal model and highlighted alternative approaches.

Factsheet
Structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), were originally designed to stabilize developing country economies. Instead, they have imposed harsh economic measures which deepen poverty, undermine food security and self-reliance and lead to unsustainable resource exploitation, massive environmental destruction, and population dislocation and displacement. Given the mounting evidence, Northern countries must reconsider the appropriateness of using their lending and aid programmes to support the structural adjustment regimes of the World Bank and IMF.

What are SAPs?