Will the Year 2000 bring a Jubilee for all those advocating for debt cancellation? That is the hard question many of us are asking these days, as we are only 100 days away from the start of the new millennium.

As most Zambians know by now, our country is deep in debt and suffers greatly as a consequence of that debt. With a total debt stock of around US$ 6.5 billion, Zambia pays more in debt servicing each year than in health care, education and social services.

The ordinary citizen feels the meaning of that fact when faced with a lack of drugs in the hospitals, books in the schools, and water in the compounds. Opening of new Shoprites may mean prosperity for South African investors but hardly is reflective of prosperity for the 80% of Zambians who live below the poverty line.

What Zambia experiences is a situation common in nations across the African continent. Last May representatives from14 African nations gathered in Zambia and issued the "Lusaka Declaration" seeking an African consensus on sustainable solutions to the debt problem. The Declaration makes very clear that more half-way measures, partial reforms and minimal concessions are unacceptable.

For the past year and a half, a major campaign to get cancellation of Zambia’s debt has been underway. This "Jubilee 2000-Zambia" is part of an international campaign that states forcefully the need for a fresh start as we enter the new millennium. Advocates of this approach argue:

• Debt is simply unpayable – servicing it already is absorbing scarce resources that are unavailable for genuine development needs and is blocking any sustainable social progress.

• Debt is easily cancelled – the creditors, whether bilaterals or multilaterals, already acknowledge that in actual fact the debt stock is worth much less than the figures usually cited and cancellation would have insignificant effect upon their financial stability.

• Debt cancellation is more political than economic – historical cancellations in Germany after World War II, in Egypt after the peace accords with Israel, and in Poland after the collapse of the Soviet Empire all demonstrate that where there is a political will there is an economic way.

The Cologne Debt Initiative offered by the G-7 countries last June is not an acceptable approach for Zambia. It offers minimal cancellation for Zambia – possibly less than US$ 900 million – and ties any relief to strict adherence to the thoroughly discredited Structural Adjustment Programme.

So what is the path forward for the Debt Campaign in Zambia as we move closer to 2000? The Debt Project sponsored by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection is vigourously pursuing two approaches.

1. Continue to mobilise popular education and action through the Jubilee 2000 effort. Already over 300,000 signatures have been gathered (45% from rural areas). Special attention will be given in the months ahead to vernacular educational efforts.
2. Continue to advocate for a "debt mechanism" that assures participation of civil society, members of Parliament and government ministries to monitor debt negotiations and commitment of resources to poverty eradication. This has been established in Uganda – why not in Zambia?

Advocacy of debt cancellation in Zambia takes on new energy these days as we count down to the year 2000. Throughout Africa there is a deeper recognition not only of the rightness of its just cause but the inevitability of its successful outcome.