Jubilee Scotland > Cut the Strings Campaign

So what are the strings?
The three main conditions are also the most controversial. They are concerned with how a country operates economically and how it fights poverty. but time and time again these policies and strings are shown to exasperate rather than tackle the root causes of poverty

One of the problems being faced by the very poorest people in the country is the demand by the IMF, that in exchange for receiving HIPC debt relief, the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) would be privatised.

The worry is that if these services are privatised this will mean that water will be unavailable to those who cannot afford it

Private companies are only interested in such a move if they think they can make money from it and one wonders how far down their list of priorities will lie the people of Tanzania. Meanwhile the Government is fully supportive of the privatisation as they have supported over 300 other such schemes. We now know that the UK company who won the bid Biwater, has seen their scheme collapse amid claims that they have failed to improve the supply for millions of people. No new pipes were laid, they had not spent the money they had promised and the quality of the water was worse rather than better.

This fiasco was paid in part by aid money from the UK. Is this the way you agreed that the UK could spend your money when you hoped that they were helping the poorest people in Africa? I think not. I didn't expect them to give £250,000 to the right wing Adam Smith Institute to promote privatisation. The cruellest twist is that Biwater are now suing the Tanzanian Government for breaking the contract.

2. TRADE LIBERALISATION
Last year the BBC reporter Mike Wooldridge visited a hatchery that was doing good business supplying chicks to local farmers - that is until trade liberalisation saw imported frozen chickens come into Ghana from western Europe and elsewhere at prices below those the farmers can compete with.

In a report published last year, (The Economics of Failure. The Real Cost of "free" trade for poor countries) Christian Aid has highlighted the fact that Ghana lost over US$10b in the first 15 years after liberalisation. Quite a sum when you consider that their average annual income is only $330 per person.

3. CUTS IN SOCIAL SPENDING
Zambia joins a long list of countries, who to obtain debt relief from the HIPC process, have to reign in public expenditure. They have to do this by stopping recruiting teachers! (as well as nurses, doctors and civil servants). This has resulted in an estimated 9,000 teacher vacancies.