MEDIA ADVISORY
November 8, 2001
Leaders against World Bank and IMF policies converge in Ottawa mid-November.
Ottawa – Civil society leaders from around the world who are active proposing alternatives to the World Bank and IMF approach to global issues will be in Ottawa to protest the IMF and World Bank meetings of November 17th and 18th. 
These leaders are hosted by the Halifax Initiative, a Canadian coalition of development, labour, human rights and environment groups. The Halifax Initiative came together in December 1994 on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to call for their fundamental reform to ensure poverty eradication, environmental sustainability and the equitable redistribution of wealth.
While in Ottawa, leaders will be participating in public education events and demonstrations.
Available for interviews from November 14th-19 include:
SOREN AMBROSE, USA. Mr. Ambrose is a Senior Policy Analyst with the 50 Years is Enough Coalition. He is quoted frequently in newspapers and on radio as a commentator on the international financial institutions and the movement for global justice. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Nigerian literature at the University of Chicago. 
ALEJANDRO BENDAÑA, Nicaragua. Dr. Bendaña is the founder and President of the Board of the Centro de Estudios Internacionales. Between 1979 and 1990, Dr. Bendaña served as Secretary General of the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry under the Sandinista Government, Ambassador to the United Nations, and official spokesperson.  He is a founding member of Jubilee South which is critical of the World Bank and IMF Poverty Reduction process.  Principal findings from Jubilee South will be announced in Ottawa. He holds a  Ph.D. in History from Harvard University and is the author of several books including Power Lines: US Hegemony in the New Global Order (New York, 1997).
ORONTO DOUGLAS, Nigeria. Mr. Douglas is Nigeria's leading environmental human rights lawyer. He is deputy director of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, and has been a visiting lecturer and speaker at community-organised events, international conferences, and universities all over the world. Douglas was a member of the legal team that represented Ken Saro Wiwa before he was murdered by the Nigerian military junta in November 1995. He took degrees in Law at the university of science and Technology, Portharcourt, Nigeria and De Montfort, Leicester, England, and his articles and speeches have been published in books, journals and magazines in Nigeria, Europe, and the United States.
PAMELA FOSTER, Canada.  Ms. Foster coordinates the Halifax Initiative and can speak to specific examples of destructive World Bank lending, the failure of the IMF to ensure economic stability and the lack of transparency and accountability of the organizations.  Ms. Foster has been representing the Halifax Initiative since 1998. Previously, she worked in the development and environment fields for Canadian NGOs and was a consultant for the United Nations Environment Program.  She has an M.A. in Development Studies from Carleton University.
STEVE  HELLINGER, USA. Mr. Hellinger is co-founder and president of the Development GAP. As major critics of U.S. and multilateral aid and trade policy, the Development GAP demonstrated alternative programming to the World Bank in a half dozen countries in the 1970s, campaigned with environmental organizations against Bank operations in the 1980s, initiated the 50 Years Is Enough Campaign in the 1990s, and are presently coordinating the global network, SAPRIN, which is challenging Bank and IMF structural adjustment policies. He has an MBA from Columbia University and is the co-author of two books, including Aid for Just Development  (1988).
ANNA KIKWA, Tanzania. Ms. Kikwa works for a Tanzanian Investment Bank and is critical of the World Bank lending programs. She is affiliated with the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) as a member. She is a holder of MBA, from the Netherlands International Institute of Management (RVB).
DEREK MACCUISH, Canada. Mr. MacCuish is Program Coordinator, Social Justice Committee, based in Montréal. Mr. MacCuish is an expert on the World Bank and the IMF’s contribution to the on-going debt crisis of the poorest countries. He has written numerous articles on the Bank and the Fund and produced a CD-Rom on the issues. 
LIDY NACPIL, Philippines. Ms. Nacpil is Director of the Freedom from Debt Coalition and founder of Jubilee South. She is also on the Executive Committee of the Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Initiative Network, which engaged with the World Bank on a review of structural adjustment. Ms. Nacpil can speak on the issues of debt and conditionalities.
To arrange interviews with any of the above speakers, please contact Pamela Foster 
(tel) 613-789-4447, (cell) 613-266-8100.