The conference is the University’s contribution to the city’s weekend of activities celebrating achievements since the Birmingham G8 and highlighting the further challenges that have arisen.

"In May 1998 70,000 people from across Britain and the world formed a human chain in Birmingham to demand debt cancellation for the world's poorest nations from the G8, the leaders of the world's richest nations.  It was a seminal event, a milestone on the journey to justice.   Ten years on billions of dollars of debt has been cancelled; the lives of millions have been changed.  But the debt crisis is not over. Injustice, exploitation and imbalances of power still characterise relationships between rich and poor nations; over 60 countries are still in need of debt cancellation; new processes that end damaging economic conditionality, deal with illegitimate debt and ensure responsible future lending are urgently needed”.    

Source: Jubilee Debt Campaign, September 2007

The Birmingham G8 meeting in 1998 took place at a turning point in aid policy, being followed by the enhanced HIPC initiative, emphasising shared objectives of poverty reduction focused on the millennium development goals, and increased focus on budget support, donor harmonisation and alignment with recipient country objectives and systems (as detailed in the Paris Declaration of 2005). 

It was also a turning point in academic research and debates over aid, which shifted from the selectivity concerns of the late 1990s (aid only better governed states?) to a broader front of concern with fragile states, security, resource curse, TB, AIDS and tackling bad governance, particularly as they trap the ‘bottom billion’ (using the term from Paul Collier’s best selling 2007 book). 

Statements from G8 meetings have similarly broadened from the Birmingham summit’s short avowal to reduce debt and increase aid, to the wide ranging statements of the 2007 G8.

Conference themes and questions

Debt relief - its achievements and problems - is the main focus of the conference, to honour the human chain of 1998.  But understanding debt relief issues requires analysis of the complex problems facing the poorest countries, and of the wider international efforts to reduce them.