Nepal Debt Relief
Petition to Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund,
and Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank:
We call for immediate debt relief for the people of Nepal. One of the poorest countries in the world before its
devastating earthquake, Nepal is now desperately in need of resources to recover, rebuild and protect its citizens from
the looming Monsoon Season. Nepal is paying nearly $600,000 a day in debt, more than $4 million a week. Debt relief
will free up immediate resources to help Nepal's people, including vulnerable men, women and children living without
shelter or access to schools, food and water or health care. The United Nations estimates that 12 Nepalese babies are
born every hour without access to basic healthcare in earthquake-impacted areas. In particular, we call on the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) to use funds in the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCR) to cancel the
$23 million in debt that Nepal owes the IMF over the next two years. We applaud the IMF for creating this debt relief
trust fund for poor countries in crisis. We believe Nepal's earthquake presents the IMF with an opportunity to
demonstrate that this new fund is an effective tool to fight extreme poverty. We call on the World Bank to immediately
cancel Nepal's debt and begin work on an emergency debt relief fund similar to the CCR. Creating that fund will help
the World Bank achieve its twin goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and promoting shared prosperity.
Signature
CC: President Barack Obama
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