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Tell Congress to Release SDRs – “Special Drawing Rights”:
• Aid Debt-Ridden Nations!
• Help Them Address Climate Change!
• Reform The International Monetary Fund!
The Women, Money & Democracy Committee of WILPF US is requesting WILPF members to contact their elected members of Congress right away – during the September session. Ask them to approve a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights to aid impoverished nations and reduce economic and other conflict. See more information about SDRs below.
The deadline for Congress to act is September 29th.
You can use this link to sign on to the letter to send to your member of Congress.
WILPF’s Women, Money & Democracy Committee (W$D) sees a new release of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) as a temporary measure worth supporting, to aid the world’s poorest nations. We encourage WILPF US to endorse the letter to President Biden.
Additional Helpful Actions
W$D urges WILPF members to take further action to assist poorer nations to respond to conditions at this time of many challenges around the world.
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During the month of September we also ask you to phone your House and Senate offices that are likely to support another release of SDRs. You can use information from this eAlert as discussion points with those offices. Democrats and Independents are the most likely supporters.
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The sign on deadline for Members of Congress is September 29th!
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Copy and paste this social media post into your personal FB page or other social media account to help spread the word (use the hashtag, #GlobalCrisisRelief).
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Inform yourself about SDRs by reading this email, and consider joining us in W$D! We in W$D feel that SDRs must be part of a larger call for Reform at the IMF and World Bank, wherein the Quota System that distributes the largest amount of SDRs to wealthy western nations, must be made more equitable. The W$D Committee will be working with WILPF International to draft a statement urging IMF reforms for more equitable policies.
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Support a Debt Jubilee (loan forgiveness) in conversations, communications to Congress, and letters to the editor. WM&D prioritizes both forgiveness of debts for the world’s poorest nations. and efforts at fair market value reparations that more equitably address global debt among the former colonized nations. Colonial and neocolonial resource theft has prevented these countries from being able to adequately care for their own people.
Background
Briefly, what are Special Drawing Rights?
WILPF’s Women, Money & Democracy Committee has been studying a relatively unknown funding vehicle of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank: Special Drawing Rights. The IMF and the World Bank are two of the most influential global economic institutions, and SDRs are a means of distributing funds among IMF member nations. SDRs are not new; they have been employed during the 70s, 80s, during the 2008 global financial crash and again in 2021 during the Covid pandemic.
SDRs are not loans and do not carry interest. They are a no-strings distribution to nations that can be cashed out in any form of currency, held as collateral to secure lower interest loans, or used to invest in any kind of national endeavor.
Indebted nations can use SDR’s for implementing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or for:
- climate disaster relief,
- infrastructure improvement,
- transportation modernization,
- housing relief,
- water access,
- education,
- healthcare,
- social welfare,
and other pressing human needs.
Countries who receive SDRs only pay a slight service charge when they cash out their SDRs, but this is much lower than interest on a loan would be. There can be no conditionality to these SDR distributions.
How has W$D come to support this “release” of more SDRs?
The Women, Money & Democracy Committee has studied SDRs. We have conferred with WILPF International and allies at the progressive group, the Bretton Woods Project in London, which monitors and critiques the policies and operations of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
We are convinced that SDRs, despite their inherent problems and inequities, offer some temporary and necessary assistance for people in the most vulnerable nations and the economic relief they can provide may well prevent conflicts that lead to war. The Action Corp’s Coalition for Global Crisis Relief is taking a leading role in this advocacy.
What are the pros and cons of SDRs?
Special Drawing Rights are not a panacea, nor are they without flaws. The IMF as the issuing body is, in itself a problem, since their role managing these SDRs solidifies their position as the central global financier and strengthens their power. The usual reasons these Special Drawing Rights are released involve creating more stability, especially those of struggling debt-encumbered nations, during economic downturns as a way of supporting national economies.
Many NGOs and WILPF allies are calling for a continued regular distribution of SDRs as a way of aiding the poorest nations, even if it means further enriching the wealthiest nations. There is an effort right now, during September 2023, to press President Biden and Congress to authorize another SDR release in the aftermath of economic downturn following the pandemic.
The poorest countries have been supportive of Special Drawing Rights as a way of climbing out of debt and providing much needed humanitarian services to their people, even though there is glaring inequity in how SDRs are distributed.
That distribution is a problem, since the lion’s share of SDRs always go to the wealthiest nations in the global north, with just a fraction of the SDR value set aside for the poorest, most indebted and neediest nations. This problem is due to the IMF’s Quota System, in which wealthy shareholders determine the distribution amounts and always deal themselves the largest payout.
In 2021 a request for a trillion dollars in SDRs was requested, and $650 billion was approved. Most of that $650 billion went to wealthy countries and is still sitting in their Central Banks, as if they are saving for a rainy day. In the nations that really need the help, it’s already raining – actually pouring,
How do SDRs connect to human rights and peace?
Here is what the representatives of the Bretton Woods Project said about SDRs:
As you know, there is academic research that links austerity and erosion of State capacity to meet international human rights obligations and citizen expectations with increased political and social unrest. One can make a coherent argument (I think) that the provision of increased fiscal resources through SDRs to constrained States is useful not only from a human rights and social equity perspective, but also from a point of view of allowing space for strengthening (or at least avoiding the further weakening of the social contract – I write that realising very well that the origins of violent conflict are always complex and contingent, but believe the argument holds). For other States where violent conflict is not an immediate concern, greater fiscal room may defuse the power of hard-right quasi or fascist movements.
Additional SDR Resources and Information
For more information about Special Drawing Rights, go to these links:
Thank you for your interest and actions!
Please contact me at with questions about the national WM&D Issue Committee of WILPF and for additional information: wmad@wilpfus.org.
Marybeth Gardam, Chair
Women, Money & Democracy Committee of WILPF US
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