Terrie O'Leary
Executive Director for Canada
World Bank, Room D12081
701 19th Street
Washington, DC, 20433

January 28, 1999

Dear Ms. O'Leary,

Bail out the people of Central America, not the banks, says NGO coalition

Terrie O'Leary
Executive Director for Canada
World Bank, Room D12081
701 19th Street
Washington, DC, 20433

November 19, 1998
BY FAX - (202) 477-4155

Dear Ms. O'Leary,

Thank-you for taking the time to discuss with us over the telephone the Halifax Initiative Coalition concerns regarding "Fuel for Thought: A New Environmental Strategy for the Energy Sector". As promised, we are forwarding to you our recommendations which we hope you will take up at the Board level in order to better ensure that the World Bank Group meets its purpose of promoting sustainable human development.

We are aware that a draft has been done as of September 30, however this has not been made available to us. Therefore our comments are on the April 18, 1998 draft, however, judging from previous experience, we doubt that the September draft is substantially different than its predecessor.

Bail out the people of Central America, not the banks, says NGO coalition 

Canadian organizations and individuals today called for an immediate stop on debt payments coming out of Nicaragua and Honduras.

4 November 1998 - In letters to the heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Finance Minister Paul Martin and External Affairs Minster Lloyd Axworthy, they asked that a freeze on debt payments be enacted for 90 days, in light of the disaster affecting the people in Central America.

Both Nicaragua and Honduras are considered heavily indebted poor countries by the international financial institutions, and pay out millions of dollars each month to outside creditors. Much of this money goes to the IMF, World Bank, and IDB. The two countries sent out US$888 million dollars last year - or $2.43 million per day.

In September 1998,

Open Letter to Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, from 86 NGOs in 28 Countries Concerning the Chad/Cameroon Oil & Pipeline Project

July 9, 1998

James D. Wolfensohn, President
The World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20433 Dear Mr. Wolfensohn, The 86 undersigned environment, development, human rights and religious organizations from 28 countries call upon you to suspend World Bank participation in the Chad/Cameroon Oil & Pipeline project until respect for human rights and compliance with World Bank environmental and other policies can be fully guaranteed.We are writing to draw your attention to the especially troublesome situation, including the severe violation of human rights, in southern Chad and to the inadequacy of the environmental impact assessment and environmental management plan for the project submitted to the Bank by Exxon.

FIDDLING WHILE ROME BURNS:
HOW WORLD BANK FINANCING OF FOSSIL FUELS
UNDERMINES THE
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY (GEF)
INTRODUCTION

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?

 The consequences of the World Bank's fossil fuel expansion in the global South are proving devastating for the Earth's climate as greenhouse gases generated in mining and burning of fossil fuels are released into the Earth's atmosphere.