G20

Reacting to today's announcement of the G20's Common Framework for debt treatments, Daniel Willis, campaign manager at Global Justice Now said:

"Covid-19 has left many countries around the world in a debtors' prison. Today rather than setting them free, the G20 have offered an hour of exercise and a bowl of thin gruel. If anything it will extend the sentence.

Warning that benefits of debt suspension will flow into coffers of big banks without stronger action 

Campaigners call for $40 billion of debts to be cancelled in 2020, as IMF announces $0.5 billion fund.

Only the most radical reset, akin to a post-world war overhaul of the international economy, will allow us to rebuild the international economy in a way which means we can tackle future pandemics.

As the G20 group of major economies begins an emergency coronavirus summit online on Monday, anti-poverty campaigners Global Justice Now called for international coordination to secure an unprecedented package of measures to build public healthcare capacity, especially in low-income countries which stand most exposed to the pandemic threat. 

The most powerful countries in the world are driving climate change, violent conflict and a deeply unequal global economy, campaigners claimed today, as the leaders of those countries meet in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In response to the G20 communique, Nick Dearden, director of social justice group Global Justice Now said:

“Angela Merkel has managed to hold it together – just about. The divisions in the international elite have nearly been papered over by this statement, but at the expense of any meaningful strategy. The statement lacks any vision for getting us out of this crisis, takes no responsibility for the state of the world, and is evidently just so much hot air for most of the countries who signed onto it.