Please send them an urgent message to say that they should instruct the IMF and the World Bank to deliver 100% debt cancellation for the world’s poorest countries. There are three ways to drop them a line to drop the debt:

* Take part in Drop the Debt’s new e-action! Visit
www.dropthedebt.org/enough
And email the link to all your friends and colleagues

* Join in the FACE THE FAX DAY on Thursday July 5. Fax your message to the UK and US finance ministers - Gordon Brown on + 44 (0)20 7270 4574 and Paul O’Neill on +1 202 622 6415. You can fax direct from the web: see CAFOD’s action page at www.cafod.org.uk/brownfaxaction.htm

* Write to all the finance ministers - use the text here as a guide for your own letter or copy and paste and add your details to print and send to the addresses below


Dear Finance Minister,

I am writing to you as a concerned citizen before you go to Rome for the vital Finance Ministers’ meeting prior to the G8 summit in Genoa. I would like to ask you to vigorously pursue a New Deal on Debt, which includes 100% cancellation by the World Bank and IMF. This is possible because the
G7 control almost 50% of the votes of the Boards of these institutions.

I care deeply about the position you take at this meeting because despite some progress, so much that has been achieved hangs in the balance if deeper debt cancellation is not delivered.

Why are the achievements to date simply not enough?

* Debt levels are not sustainable. Even the HIPC process is reducing payments by a mere 27% per year on average. Some countries, such as Zambia and Niger, are actually paying more after HIPC than before

* The HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa makes debt cancellation even more urgent. Any fight against HIV/AIDS must include deeper debt cancellation to ensure health service provision, adequate infrastructure and education. This is impossible at present, since the countries at decision point are still spending more on debt repayments than on the health of their people

* African leaders are urgently calling for deeper debt cancellation. The rest of the world should listen to the voices of the new band of African leaders who are committed to democracy and fighting poverty. Continued high debt levels deny them the means to break the cycle of poverty

* The objective of halving world poverty by 2015 is simply unrealistic without significantly deeper debt cancellation, as a necessary element in a range of measures that must be taken


Your influence as one of the leading G7 finance ministers is considerable. Please do all you can to persuade your colleagues to agree a New Deal on Debt in Rome. I look forward to hearing how you get on.


Yours sincerely


Write to:

UK
Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
Chancellor of the Exchequer
HM Treasury
Parliament Street
London SW1P 3AG
fax number: +44 (0)20 7270 4574

United States
Paul O'Neill
US Secretary of the Treasury
Department of Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20220
USA
fax number: + 1 202-622-6415


Italy
Giulio Tremonti
Ministerio de Finanzas
Viale America 242
00140 Roma
Italy

France
Laurent Fabius
Ministere de l'economie, des finances et de l'industrie
139 Rue De Bercy
75572 Paris
Cedex 12
FRANCE

Germany
Hans Eichel
Federal Minister of Finance
Postfach 1308
D-53003 Bonn
GERMANY

Japan
Masajuro Shiokawa
Minister of Finance
1-1 Kasumigaseki 3-chome
Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo, JAPAN

Canada
Paul Martin
Minister of Finance
House of Commons
Room 515S Centre Block
Ottawa
Ontario K1A 0A6
Canada