That deadline is fast approaching and, from the end of December, Jubilee 2000 will be no more. For the past four years the terms of the debate have been set by the debt campaigners, who little by little have forced the plight of the world's forgotten people onto the political agenda. Not only has Jubilee 2000 been comfortably the most successful mass movement of the past 25 years, but it has also shown how the process known as globalisation is nurturing its own opponents. Staggering though the success of Jubilee 2000 has been, Saturday will still have an air of melancholy. Because the goal of wiping out the unpayable debts of the world's poorest countries has not been achieved.
Victory remains tantalisingly just out of grasp.
There is still plenty of unfinished business. Debt relief works. But elsewhere in the world's poorest countries, children are still dying for lack of food, still falling ill for lack of basic health care, and having their futures blighted for lack of education. Despite all the pressure, despite the mobilisation of political will, despite all the promises of speedier and more generous help, that is the brutal truth. People are dying and suffering when they do not need to.