Contact: Hope Chu, 50 Years Is Enough Network: +1 202 463 2265/+1 303 667 6613
Morrigan Phillips, Mobilization for Global Justice: +1 202 258 1822

Attention Photo Editors and Photographers: Activists will stage a theatrical event today, Friday, 21 April 2006, at noon in front of IMF headquarters, H and 19th Sts NW, Washington DC.

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank hold their annual joint meetings, leading healthcare advocates and IMF/World Bank critics called on the institutions to end policies that have ravaged the quality, availability, and accessibility of healthcare in impoverished countries. Representatives of the "Peoples' Health Department" delivered a failing health report and an order to close to the institutions in a theatrical event in front of the Washington, DC, headquarters of the IMF.

Healthcare and poverty advocates highlighted the devastating effect of IMF/World Bank policies on healthcare systems in impoverished countries. "These institutions, which claim to help the world’s poor often end up hurting them instead," says Vineeta Gupta of Stop HIV/AIDS In India Initiative (SHAII), "Policies such as the privatization of healthcare systems undermine healthcare efforts in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, leaving poor people without access to affordable healthcare."

Critics point to the institutions' narrow, ideological approach to economic policy as another deterrent to healthcare provision in impoverished countries. "The IMF routinely requires countries to limit public spending - including spending on healthcare and education," says Sameer Dossani of the 50 Years Is Enough Network, "Under the IMF, spending on public health in Latin America and the Caribbean fell from $131 per person/year in 1997 to $122 in 2001. Between 1997 and 2001, healthcare spending in Sub-Saharan African countries fell from an already low $17 per person/year to a dismal $12. This is outrageous in the region that faces the greatest challenges from the HIV/AIDS pandemic."

Advocates also underscore the importance of debt cancellation for healthcare. "Paying foreign debt diverts already limited resources from budgets for healthcare and education, and some countries spend up to nine times more on servicing debt than on healthcare," says Morrigan Phillips of the Mobilization for Global Justice, "However, debt cancellation can help improve healthcare and fight AIDS. For instance, in Zambia, the government has already used funds from the recent IMF and World Bank debt cancellation to provide free healthcare to poor rural areas."