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Our campaign to Drop Haiti's Debt in response to January's devastating earthquake is gathering pace. Take action here. We'll add the latest news to this page.

9 March - US Congress moves forward on debt cancellation

Bills in both houses of the US Congress are quickly moving forward to support debt cancellation for Haiti. On March 5th, the Senate passed the Haiti Recovery Act, which will push the Treasury to follow through on its commitments. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives will vote on the Debt Relief for Earthquake Recovery in Haiti Act (HR4573) introduced last month by Maxine Waters (D-CA). The bill would direct the Secretary of the Treasury to use its influence to immediately cancel Haiti's debts to international institutions. Congress is using its power to make sure that the international community follows through on its word to cancel Haiti's debt. More from Jubilee USA.

3 March - US bill to cancel Haiti's debt

On Thursday in the US a House subcommittee agreed to push for total debt cancellation for Haiti. A bill was passed to encourage international financial institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development bank to cancel all of the country's debts, as well as pushing for aid to be given in the form of grants rather than loans.   

11 February - Haiti's debt - what next?

After the success of the G7 pledge to push for debt cancellation in Haiti, largely thanks to continued pressure and petitioning by activists, the Jubilee Debt Campaign is working hard to ensure that these pledges are realised, won’t punish developing countries and won’t be used for ulterior motives.

6 February - G7 nations support debt relief

Good news from the G7 Finance Ministers meeting in Iqaluit, Canada, today. They've agreed to push for the cancellation of Haiti's multilateral debts - that's the debts to the International Monetary Fund and Inter-American Development Bank that make up a big chunk of Haiti's outstanding debts. The debts haven't been cancelled yet, but as some of the largest shareholders in those institutions, it's a big step forward.

6 February - Global petition hand-in at G7 meeting

The co-ordinated global petition to drop Haiti's debt has been handed in at the G7 finance ministers summit in the small Arctic Canadian town of Iqaluit. Over 400,000 people around the world have signed the petition so far.

5 February - US supports new Haiti debt relief

The US Department of the Treasury has announced the United States will work with its partners around the world to relieve all debts owed by Haiti to international institutions and to ensure grant financing to support Haiti's reconstruction.

They also welcomed International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn's call to provide full relief for Haiti's outstanding IMF debt, including the $102 million emergency loan.

The US intends to seek a commitment with other donors for the relief of Haiti's debt to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Development Association (IDA) in a manner that provides direct and immediate grant support to Haiti.

5 February - Christian Aid petition hand-in

Campaigners from Christian Aid, one of Jubilee Debt Campaign's coalition members, have handed in 15,000 petitions in support of the campaign to Drop Haiti's Debt to Treasury Minister Stephen Timms.

4 February - UK MPs write to Alistair Darling

A group of 6 parliamentarians have written to Alastair Darling today to ask him to put pressure on the G7 ministers to cancel Haiti's debt, and put a hold on repayments until complete debt cancellation for Haiti is arranged. They also ask the Chancellor to ensure that all money to aid its recovery is given in grants and not loans. Failure to do this could push the country into a 'debt crisis' they wrote. The letter stresses the urgency of pushing through the cancellation before the spotlight moves from Haiti and international pressure weakens, describing the current situation as "completely unacceptable".

4 February - Haiti's debt burden-the real story

Eurodad has released a new briefing Haiti's debt burden-the real story showing that Haiti is suffering from a debt deadlock: it is dependent on more loans after the earthquake, but it can't afford to repay them. Even before the earthquake, it was committing nearly 10% of its revenue to debt repayments. In the coming 9 years the IMF will expect Haiti to repay at least $104 million - and over $500 million will be expected in that time by all of Haiti's creditors combined.

4 February - Campaigners condemn IMF's failure

Campaigners from across Europe joined with Haitian civil society groups today in condemning the failure of the International Monetary Fund to cancel Haiti's debts, and the Fund's extension of new loans to Haiti. As G7 finance ministers prepare to meet in the far North of Canada tomorrow, campaigners released a statement demanding the immediate and unconditional cancellation of Haiti's entire debt.

Camille Chalmers of the Haitian Advocacy Platform for Development (PAPDA) said: "The debts imposed by the IFIs and the major world powers have contributed to destroying our country. It's the equivalent of an earthquake which has lasted from late in 1983 when we signed the first  standby agreement with the IMF. These loans have caused earthquakes, aftershocks and tremors which have undermined our institutions and our capacity to respond to a crisis of this magnitude."

28 January - US Senators table debt relief bill

Two US Senators, Chris Dodd and Richard Lugar, have introduced legislation which attempts to cancel Haiti's foreign debt, as well as increasing trade and creating an improved infrastructure to help its recovery.

27 January - Venezuela cancels Haiti's debt

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela announced the cancellation of Haiti’s debts to his country in the wake of the earthquake. The cancellation will account for approximately $295 million, about one third of Haiti's outstanding international debt. Chavez said that "Haiti has no debt with Venezuela - on the contrary, it is Venezuela that has a historic debt with Haiti”, referring to the support that Haiti gave to the Venezuelan independence movement.

22 January - International institutions consider dropping Haiti's debt

Thanks to action from campaigners in the UK and internationally, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Inter-American Development Bank have all spoken of the possibility of debt cancellation.

The IMF has said: "The most important thing is that the IMF is now working with all donors to try to delete all the Haitian debt, including our new loan. If we succeed-and I'm sure we will succeed-even this loan will turn out to be finally a grant, because all the debt will have been deleted."

The Inter-American Development Bank is expected to approve $128million of grants to Haiti but is still Haiti's biggest creditor, with $441million owed to it. It has said that it's "Board of Governors could consider the possibility of providing further debt relief to Haiti". As the Bank now accepts that Haiti should receive grants rather than loans, there seems no justification for maintaining this outstanding debt.

The World Bank has announced $100 million in grants to Haiti and said it will waive payments for five years on the $38m owed to it and is "working to find a way forward to cancel the remaining debt."

Other creditors:
Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou is sending aid to Haiti and claims that Taiwan's loans are from private banks, but that he will ask the foreign ministry how he can help to cancel its debt.

Venezuela is donating unlimited fuel to Haiti, as well as relief aid, but is also a large creditor to Haiti and, although a developing country itself, is being called on to wipe out Haiti's debt.

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