G7 Finance and Development Ministers has reviewed proposals for debt relief and “innovative financing” of the islands that are hit by natural disasters.
They discussed this on June 1, the first day of the 2018 hurricane season.
Also focusing on empowering women in the economy, the group will also meet in Whistler, Canada, through Sunday.
These meetings will help prepare outcomes for the upcoming G7 Ministerial meeting that President Trump attends later in June, according to a Jubilee USA Network statement.
Jubilee USA Executive Director Eric LeCompte, who has been tracking G7 meetings since 2010, said, “As a new hurricane season begins, there is an urgency for the G7 to promote crisis response tools like debt relief.
“This is the first time that Finance and Development Ministers are meeting jointly at the G7 and they can promote solutions for when financial crises and humanitarian crises collide.”
“Many of the islands that are prone to hurricanes already struggle with high child poverty rates and high debt burdens,” stated LeCompte.
“When these islands are struggling to recover and meet the needs of their people, they shouldn’t be paying debt.”
According to Jubilee USA, since the early 2000s, debt relief processes cut the debt of some of the world’s poorest countries.
In recent years, debt relief initiatives supported Haiti after it was struck by an earthquake and relieved the debts of three African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak.