SLUG is an umbrella organisation with more than 50 affiliated civil society organisations and political youth parties, some more actively engaged than others. SLUG was established in 1994. Since then the organisation has evolved and steadily been built up by a network of volunteers coming together in working groups. From 1998 to 2001 SLUG coordinated the Jubilee 2000 campaign in Norway. The coordination of activities on the national level is run by the board, mainly consisting of representatives from local groups and affiliated organisations.

The affiliated organisations support SLUG’s main demands and principles:
1. Immediate cancellation of all illegitimate debt, including all the debt that can not be paid without burdening the worlds poorest.
2. Debt cancellation must not be conditioned by the carrying out of structural adjustment programmes. Civil Society and national governments in the debtor countries must be consulted during the process of debt cancellation.

The principles guiding these demands are as follows:

• Debt cancellation must not be financed over the aid budget.
• The main goal of debt cancellation is to eradicate poverty and, to enable positive, socially inclusive economic development of poor communities. There has to be openness and transparency around public expenditure made possible from debt cancellation.
• Cancellation of debt must be seen together with broader structural institutional change on a global level, levelling out the discrepancy of power between countries in the north and the south.

Main Working Areas : Policy Work and Campaigning
SLUG’s work consists of campaigning and political lobbying on the subject of debt cancellation. Inspired by campaigns in the South since 2001 our main focus has been on illegitimate debt defining and challenging to recognise the concept. Since 1994 our key demand have been the cancellation of Norway’s illegitimate debt; the debt originating from the Norwegian Shipping Export Campaign 1976-80. A great victory was reached in 2006 as the Norwegian government decided to cancel these debts (see report and press release) and admitted co-responsibility for failed development policy in the past.

The government’s groundbreaking statement of creditor’s co-responsibility and the decision of cancelling the debt unilaterally and without any conditions has had a significant impact on SLUG’s policy work. The Norwegian government is morally obliged to apply the same principles of creditor’s co-responsibility within multilateral institutions. An important task for SLUG is therefore to push the Norwegian government to:

• Clarify the concept of and cancel illegitimate debts
• Establish criteria for creditor responsibility and responsible lending
• Say no to privatisation and liberalisation as conditions for debt relief and aid
• Establish an international debt workout mechanism
  

The main target groups of SLUG’s campaigning are the affiliated organisations, students, scholars and politicians. SLUG wants to contribute to create a knowledgeable public opinion to ensure a focus on the role of global finance structures as contributors to poverty and global inequality.

Learn more about why Norway took creditor responsibility here.