Campaigners for urgent debt relief say that huge sums of money are going back to wealthy countries instead of feeding and educating children in the world's poorest nations. The money was originally borrowed in the 1970s and 1980s, often badly invested or squandered, and in many cases the loan repayments are far beyond the nations' abilities to repay. Many have struggled for years to repay only the interest on loans that are, in some cases, decades old.
Debt is a millstone around the neck of the poorest countries.
The world's wealthiest countries exert great influence over the decisions of the institutions, because voting power is set according to financial contributions. However, the G8 summit in Japan this year will be the last push by the Jubilee 2000 coalition before it disbands at the end of the year. Campaigners say progress has been unacceptably slow, and they are not optimistic about achieving their objective of full debt cancellation. Among them are David Bowie, Beck, Peter Gabriel, and Robbie Williams. At the annual British music industry awards in February 1999, Bono, the lead singer of the Irish rock group U2, took the stage with the former World heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, who is an International Ambassador for Jubilee 2000.