From Africa Recovery, Vol.13#1 (June 1999), Briefs page

Debt cancellation long overdue -- Richard Jolly

Mr. Richard Jolly, special adviser to the Administrator of the UN Development Programme and principal coordinator of its annual Human Development Report, has been awarded the Rome Prize for Peace and Humanitarian Action. This was in recognition of his work on the report, as well as his earlier role in helping shape the programmes of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

"The international debt of the poorest countries in the world today is intolerable, unpayable, immoral and inexcusable," Mr. Jolly stated at the award ceremony in Rome in December, conducted by Mayor Sindaco Rutelli. He strongly supported Italy in its call for major reductions in the external debt of the most highly indebted and poorest countries.

Mr. Jolly passed on the $30,000 that came with the prize to Jubilee 2000, an international coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGO) coordinating a campaign for debt reduction, as well as to Italian NGOs focusing on the issue. He said debt cancellation is long overdue, noting that sub-Saharan Africa, while the poorest region in the world, also has the most severe debt burden. "Debt relief," he added, "needs to be linked to actions for human development, in ways which directly benefit poor people."

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