African faith leaders join pleas for Jubilee debt forgiveness

By Lisa Zengarini

As the 2025 Jubilee Year approaches, African faith leaders have joined growing pleas for a new round of debt forgiveness for Africa, saying that debt servicing is again making it impossible for poorer nations to support their populations through investments in health, education and social services.

Representatives from Christian Churches, the Muslim community , national councils of Churches and  interreligious councils across 13 countries in Africa met in Kigali, Rwanda, last week to discuss this crucial issue to which Pope Francis has also drawn attention on several occasions.

In a joint statement addressed to the G20, G7, United Nations, IMF and World Bank they called for substantial changes in the economic global system to allow these nations to develop and to invest in social, health and educational services for their populations. 

Africa to spend 90 billion dollars servicing public debt in 2024

“Our countries face again agonizing choices between spending and investing on their people and paying their creditors,” said the statement, remarking that “this year alone, Africa will spend 90 billion US dollars servicing public debt” while “the average African country’s combined spending on health, education and social protection is two-thirds of their debt payments.”

The successful Jubilee 2000 debts relief campaign

The religious leaders recalled the successful campaign of faith communities and activists in the leadup to the Great 2000 Jubilee year which led to the largest ever collective debt relief initiative. The idea was inspired by the biblical 50-year Jubilee of ancient Israel, which the Catholic Church celebrates every 25 years as a time for spiritual renewal dedicated to forgiveness and reconciliation with God and others.

The Jubilee 2000 initiative mobilized 130 billion US dollars in debt relief allowing for important poverty reduction investments in several countries. 

“Unfortunately,” the statement notes “inequities in the international tax, financial and trading systems, together with gaps in domestic governance, continued to foster unsustainable debt.”. The religious leaders remark that these financial challenges have been compounded by conflicts and wars, among other “multiple shocks”, including the Covid-19 pandemic and  climate change

Putting  people and the Earth above debt

The faith leaders therefore urge global lenders to align their action and decisions  in the coming months with the Jubilee values “that put people and the Earth above debt”

The statement first of all calls for “forgiving debts that are unpayable without endangering the achievement of 2030 UN development and climate goals.”

According to the religious leaders, developing countries should have access to permanent, rules-based and predictable processes that bind all creditors into debt reductions, “to limit unnecessary suffering and reduce the cost of crises for all.”

They further call for the implementation of responsible lending and borrowing principles: “Through laws, regulations and best practices, lenders and borrowers have a role to prevent the emergence of new cycles of wasteful and unbearable debts, including through authorization and disclosure regimes for debt contracts,” they say. There is also a need to mainstream risk sharing between creditors and debtors in debt contracts:  “In a world more prone to shocks, developing countries in debt should not be left alone to bear the costs of climate-related disasters, pandemics and other events beyond their control,” the religious leaders remark.

Finally, the statement calls for scaling up access to resources for development in non-debt-creating and affordable terms. 

International community has the responsibily to act

The faith leaders conclude thei statement by reminding the international community that is at a crossroads: “You have the power and the responsibility to steer it in the  path that restores hope and renewal,” they said.