Drop the debt
Remember Bono meeting the Pope? The 70,000 people-long 'human chain' encircling the Birmingham G8 summit? Gordon Brown promising activists his help? The campaign to cancel Third World debt has been one of the great causes of our time.
The issue has long created outrage - many of the world's poorest countries are crippled by repayments on old loans from rich countries and big financial institutions.
Hundreds of thousands of people pressed for debt-relief, demonstrating peacefully at annual meetings of world leaders.
Jubilee 2000, the debt-cancellation alliance co-founded by Christian Aid, became a global movement that simply couldn't be ignored.
Campaigners sent half a million postcards, emails and letters to the Treasury and Downing Street, calling on government to 'drop the debt'.
Hundreds of thousands of people pressed for debt-relief, demonstrating peacefully at annual meetings of world leaders. An incredible 24 million people around the world signed a petition - a world record - demanding that poor countries be released from their debt burden.
Breakthrough came at the 1999 G8 summit in Cologne - leaders promised to cancel $100 billion of debt owed by the poorest countries.
It was a desperately needed step in the right direction. Thousands of children in countries like Uganda are finally getting the chance to go to school, because their governments can once more afford to fund education.
Campaigners sent half a million postcards, emails and letters to the Treasury and Downing Street, calling on government to 'drop the debt'.
Hundreds of thousands of people pressed for debt-relief, demonstrating peacefully at annual meetings of world leaders. An incredible 24 million people around the world signed a petition - a world record - demanding that poor countries be released from their debt burden.
Breakthrough came at the 1999 G8 summit in Cologne - leaders promised to cancel $100 billion of debt owed by the poorest countries.
It was a desperately needed step in the right direction. Thousands of children in countries like Uganda are finally getting the chance to go to school, because their governments can once more afford to fund education.
But the crisis continues.
More must be done - so far, $36.3 billion of debt has been written off (just under 40% of what's been promised) and some types of debt will go untouched under the current deal.
Stop paying for poverty campaign
Our campaign to the IMF and World Bank focused on the damaging conditions they put on debt and aid given to poor countries. On 14 September 2006, more than 3,000 campaigners drummed out our trade justice message to the Treasury - just days before Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn jetted off to crucial IMF and World Bank meetings in Singapore. We wanted to remind Brown and Benn of the people affected by the policies of the IMF and World Bank. We are calling on Brown and Benn to cut funding to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank - until these institutions stop forcing damaging free-trade policies on poor countries.
Campaign victory
Hilary Benn announced that the UK government would withhold £50 million from the World Bank until it makes progress on reducing the conditions attached to its loans to poor countries. Find out more on the announcement
Campaign update
On 5 December Hilary Benn released the £50 million that he had been withholding from the World Bank. Find out more
What you can do
We'll be keeping the pressure up on Brown and Benn. Watch this space for more actions.
Act now: Find the latest actions here
Act now: Find the latest actions here
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