Debt Relief and Girls' Education

Article 26 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed on December 10, 1948, states; “Everyone has the right to education.  Education shall be free, at least in elementary and fundamental stages.  Elementary education shall be compulsory…”[1] To this date 171 countries have affirmed their commitment to universal human rights but statistics show that 125 million children, or one in five children, in the world are not in school.[2]   Two thirds of them are girls.  “That’s as many as all of the school-age girls in North America and Europe.”[3]  At the World Education Forum, held in April 2000 in Dakar, Senegal, 164 governments, UNESCO and the World Bank committed to achieve education for all (EFA) by 2015 and set a target of eliminating the gender gap in school enrollment by 2005.   These participants also “endorsed the principle that ‘no country seriously committed to education for all will be thwarted in their achievements of this goal by lack of resources.’”[4]  Unfortunately not much progress has been made since the World Education Forum.  One of the main reasons for the lack of progress is the burden of debt facing developing countries.  Developing countries’ debt repayments take up scarce resources that could be better invested in education.  Carol Bellamy, Director of UNICEF, underlined the link between meeting goals, such as education for all, and canceling debt for developing countries by stating:  “The optimal conditions for meeting the 2015 targets are accelerated and more equitable economic growth, and improved access to better-quality basic services.  Unsustainable debt has undermined progress on each of these fronts, with devastating consequences for human well-being.”  The burden of debt owed by developing countries hinders the education of children living in those countries, especially for girls.  Organizations such as UNICEF, Oxfam and the Campaign for Education have indicated that in order to reduce global poverty, it is crucial to ensure that all girls receive an education.     

There are many obstacles limiting girls’ access to education.  According to UNICEF some barriers to educating girls are gender discrimination, family poverty, legal frameworks and issues of safety and security.  “For girls the hurdles are, for the most part, higher and more frequent—simply because they are girls.”[5]  In some countries schools are forced to charge fees because they do not get enough funding from the government.  In addition to school fees students sometimes have to pay for uniforms and school books.  Often poor families can not afford these fees.  They are forced to have their children work in order to provide the basic necessities for their home.  If families are able to send one child to school it is usually the boy because they believe it is a better long-term investment.  Early marriage and pregnancy are also widespread in many countries.  This causes many problems when trying to educate girls because many countries have laws and policies that prohibit pregnant girls from attending school or returning to school after the birth of their child.  Worldwide an estimated 50 million children are not registered at birth, and the majority of these children are girls.  In many countries laws prohibit children from attending school or taking examinations without a birth certificate.[6]  Also due to lack of funding, many schools do not have female teachers who serve as role models for girl students and help them to feel more secure in their school environment.[7] 

“In Ghana, sending just one child to primary school for a year can cost the equivalent of one month’s earnings from agricultural labour.  In Zambia, between one-half and three-quarters of total education spending at primary level is now met directly by parents…In Tanzania, schools are often in poor repair; children sit on the floor in overcrowded classes, sharing the few books available.”[8]  Niger will spend over a quarter of its revenue on debt while 86% of its population can not read or write.  Zambia will spend a quarter of its yearly national budget on debt, more than its entire spending on health.[9]  Ethiopia spends about $6 per capita on debt-servicing and $2.5 per capita on education.  In Honduras, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger and Uganda, debt repayments have been absorbing more budget resources than health and education combined.[10]  All of these examples can be seen throughout the developing world. 

 Education in many developing countries is suffering because governments occupied with repaying debt to foreign creditors and governments, have a minimum budget for social services.  “The world’s poorest countries owe more than $200 billion, and it has been estimated that approximately one quarter of bilateral aid is now used to refinance debt service repayment.”[11]  “World Bank figures for 1999 show that $128 million is transferred daily from the 62 most impoverished countries to wealthy countries, and that for every dollar countries receive in grant aid, they repay $13 on old debts.”[12]

The World Bank and the IMF are the biggest remaining creditors to the poorest countries in the world.  The United States is the largest contributor to the World Bank with total contributions of $53 billion since 1944.[13]  The United States is also the largest shareholder in

the World Bank with 16.41% of the votes, giving it veto power over any votes that require a super majority.  In 1996 the IMF and the World Bank launched a Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative to approach the issue of debt reduction for heavily indebted poor countries.  To date, the IMF and World Bank have approved debt reduction packages providing $51 billion in debt service relief over time for 27 countries, 21 of them in Africa.[14]  Unfortunately, this debt reduction is still not enough.  According to Jubilee USA, a grassroots organization committed to promoting the cancellation of all debt owed by developing countries and supported by the Women’s Division, even after the HIPC debt reduction initiative “22 countries will owe more to the World Bank and IMF than to the next 17 biggest creditors put together.”[15]  “In HIPC countries now receiving debt relief, future debt service to 2005 will be $2 billion a year.  This is three-quarters of the finance required to meet the education and health goals of these countries.”[16]  In addition, there are many countries which are deemed ineligible for HIPC assistance despite being low-income countries with large debt burdens, such as Liberia, Sudan, Nigeria, Haiti, Cambodia and Bangladesh.[17] 

Gender discrimination and the subordinate role of women in societies across the world have diminished girls’ prospects for education.  “There are 42 million fewer girls than boys enrolled in primary schools across the world.”[18]  In Africa 27 million girls are out of school and in South Asia there are 28 million girls out of school.  Two-thirds of the world’s 875 million illiterate adults are women.[19]       

Educating girls not only empowers women economically and socially, but according to Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the United Nations, “investments in girls’ education translate directly and quickly into better nutrition for the whole family, better health care, declining fertility, poverty reduction and better overall economic performance.[20]  UNICEF states that “girls’ education may be the single most effective weapon in the prevention of HIV/AIDS [where in sub-Saharan Africa, 58 % of those infected with HIV/AIDS are women].”[21] 

Girls’ education is an important factor in trying to reduce poverty and make the world a better place for both women and men.  The World Bank and IMF debt relief program has already shown some success stories.  Tanzania has used the $3 billion in debt relief it received from the World Bank to increase education spending and eliminate school fees for elementary school education.  It is estimated that 1.6 million children returned to school after these changes.  The resources that were going to pay off debt are now being directed towards important social services such as education and health.  Debt relief is a start but debt cancellation, canceling all debt owed by developing countries to foreign creditors, will allow countries to use their own resources to reduce poverty even further.  G-7 bilateral governments, of which the United States is a member, have pledged to write off all of the debts they are owed by HIPC countries.  Australia and Norway have also joined them in this pledge.[22]  We must urge our leaders to commit to their pledges and to use their power to persuade the World Bank and the IMF to cancel all debt in order to provide more opportunities for girls to receive an education and to meet the goals set by the Dakar conference to achieve education for all by 2015.

                                                                                                                                                            October 2003

ACTION  

• Learn more about debt relief and girls’ education by contacting UNICEF, Jubilee USA Network and Oxfam. 

UNICEF:                      Tel: 212-326-7000         Website:  www.unicef.org         

            Jubilee USA Network:    Tel: 202-783-3566         Website:  www.jubileeusa.org

            Oxfam:                         Tel: 617-482-1211         Website:  www.oxfam.org

• Currently there is only one bill in Congress regarding debt relief.  Write or call your congressional representatives and ask them to support H.R. 2482, also known as the Iraqi Freedom from Debt Act.  H.R. 2482 calls for the cancellation of loans made to Iraq by multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF.  This bill asks for the cancellation of all odious debt owed by Iraq.  According to the bill, odious debt is “debt incurred by dictatorships for the purposes of oppressing their people or for personal purposes.”  Iraq can use the money available from debt cancellation to invest in desperately needed social services such as education.  This bill would also set a precedent for canceling debt in other developing countries as it states, “…Such an action [canceling Iraq’s odious debt] would set a precedent to follow for other creditors, odious or not, throughout the rest of the world.”  You may contact your representative by calling the US Capitol switchboard at 202-244-3121.