This coming weekend (October 16-18th) is Jubilee Weekend, a time when communities of faith around the U.S. highlight issues of global poverty and debt in partnership with Jubilee USA. This weekend is also the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meetings which will be addressing issues of extreme poverty and the global economic crisis.

Now is a critical time to call for debt cancellation, increased foreign aid in COVID supplemental legislation, and the issuance of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) by the IMF to address the global humanitarian crisis. SDRs are special bonds that the IMF can issue (grants, not loans) and would not cost the U.S. anything. They were issued in 2009 to address global financial crises and as much as $2.3 Trillion could be issued today.