Publication

This brief describes the initiative to write down the official debts of a group of heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) in order to reduce debt burdens and to promote a new way of assisting poor countries in poverty alleviation and human development. The authors propose expanding the HIPC program to include all low-income countries and increasing the resources dedicated to debt relief. Because debt relief will still only be a first step, they also recommend reforms of the current “aid architecture” that will make debt more predictably sustainable, make aid more efficient and help recipient countries graduate from aid dependence.