The SEDOS World Debt Working Group set as its theme: Towards an Equitable World Economy. The goal of this formulation is to stress the fact that the external debt of developing countries both emerges from and exacerbates much more fundamental injustices in the global economy. The debt provides a point of focus, but the ultimate goal must be an equitable world economy and not just debt cancellation.

The Working Group collaborated with Yutaka Sakai, a Japanese producer of TV documentaries. Mr. Sakai did a program on the campaign for debt cancellation and the Working Group was involved from a very early stage in discussing the understanding of the debt crisis and the orientation of the program. We were able to arrange a number of interviews here in Rome and also to make contacts in Tanzania. Mr. Sakai came to Rome in May. An interview was arranged at Ariccia with a group of about 15 members of SEDOS congregations. The program was shown on July 20^th on national satellite television in Japan. Reports we have heard from viewers have been very positive. We know of at least one person who had been against debt cancellation before viewing the program and changed his mind as a result. Mr. Sakai has informed us that a number of viewers found the interview at Ariccia the most convincing part, saying that "If the priests and nuns who know Africa best say the debt should be canceled, that is convincing enough!"

In June, in response to an open invitation on the home page of the World Bank, we sent a comment on the HIPC Initiative (a programme for debt relief) to the World Bank and the IMF arguing that debt relief should not be linked to structural adjustment, that by focusing only on the indebted countries the HIPC Initiative failed to address the real causes of the debt crisis which actually lie in the international economy, and that the resolution of the debt crisis should be taken out of the hands of the creditors and placed under an independent, transparent and representative arbitration agency. Our comment can be found on the JPIC Today homepage (http://www. geoworld.com/CapitolHill/1353/).

The Working Group sent a representative to Cologne in June, at the time of the G7 meeting, along with over 40 thousand signatures appealing for debt cancellation. This will have been only a small portion of the signatures collected by SEDOS congregations and sent to various campaign headquarters. The total number of signatures was 17 million. The signature campaign continues, and the goal remains to increase the number to over 23 million by the next G7 summit in Okinawa. The Cologne Debt Initiative, decided on by the G7 in June, has been critically evaluated and a report on this can be found on the SEDOS homepage (http://www.sedos.org/). In general, the assessment was that the Initiative offered little of substance in terms of cancellation yet strengthened the conditionality of structural adjustment and the role of the IMF. Consequently it was seen as, if anything, a step backward. The success of the campaign in drawing so much attention to the issue, however, indicates that the campaign as such is effective and should continue.

In November, we sent to the member congregations of SEDOS information about the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle and provided them with a sample letter appealing for concern for ethics, environment, and the poor which they could send to this meeting.

Also in November, a representative of the Working Group participated in the South-South Summit, organized by Jubilee South and held in Johannesburg from November 18 to 21. This was a coming together of Jubilee coalitions from Africa, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific (hence the name South-South). The purpose of this summit was to give the groups from the indebted countries the opportunity to develop their own perspective and formulate common positions. A new paper of the SEDOS World Debt Working Group has been drawn up, drawing from the experience of this Summit and titled, "Should Debt Cancellation be Unconditional?" It will be distributed at the same time as this report.

The Working Group will continue to promote the signature campaign of the Jubilee 2000 movement, in order to help towards the goal of 23 million signatures by July.

The Working Group will continue to try to raise awareness of the debt and other issues related to injustice in the international economy — focusing on the broader issue of an equitable world economy.

Given the fact that there are particular difficulties with demonstrating at the next G7 Summit in Okinawa (because of distance and the high cost of travel, high costs in Japan and in Okinawa itself which is a tourist resort, and also because the preoccupation of civil society in Japan will be on the presence of the US bases in Okinawa), we will use our contacts and experience in Japan to help the Jubilee 2000 campaign and others prepare for this event.

Given the fact that there are at times some misunderstandings between the debt campaigns from the North and those from the South, we will try to use or position as a group with roots in both North and South to promote understanding and harmony between these two wings of the campaign.

We have also decided to develop an extended Working Group. With the internet and email as developed as they are now, we should be able to organize a working group that includes members who are not in Rome but are linked together through email. In this way, we could incorporate people who are dealing with the debt from all situations in the globe. We will therefore be trying to get in touch with members of SEDOS congregations who might be interested in being part of this broader Working Group.

Mail Address:              SEDOS                                                 Telephone:   06-5741350                                  via dei Verbiti 1                                       Fax:            06-5755787                                  00154 Roma                                           E-mail:        sedos@pcn.net                                  Italy   Recent SEDOS World Debt Working Group documents can be found on the SEDOS home page:             www.sedos.org Older papers can be found on the JPIC Today home page:             www.geoworld.com/CapitolHill/1353/

If you would like to join the SEDOS World Debt Working Group, please fill in the following and send it to the above address:

If you can reccomend anyone who might be interested in becoming involved in the broader working group (it could be any member of a SEDOS congregation in any country), please fill in the following: