Heavily Indebted Poor Countries

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The 38 states recognized as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). Countries qualifying for full HIPC relief. Countries qualifying for partial HIPC relief. Countries eligible for HIPC relief but not yet meeting necessary conditions.

Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) are countries with the highest levels of poverty in the world (see least developed countries) which are the subject of international debt relief measures aiming to reduce their external debt to sustainable levels. Assistance is conditional on the national governments of these countries meeting a range of economic management and performance targets.

The program was initiated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in 1996, following extensive lobbying by NGOs and other bodies. It underwent review and reform in 1999. Final eligibility for relief measures is conditional upon efforts to reduce poverty in the participating countries.

The program has been criticized for having excessively strict criteria for inclusion, for providing inadequate debt relief, for money being invested in projects that provide no long term good in the development of the country, and for requiring countries to adopt measures which are likely to increase poverty. For example, inadequate debt relief for such countries means that they will need to spend more on servicing debts, rather than on actively investing in programs which can reduce poverty.

The HIPC program identifies 38 countries, 32 of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa, as being potentially eligible to receive debt relief (2004). The 27 countries that have so far received a combined $54 billion in aid are the following:

[edit] Recent progress

Further progress towards debt relief was announced on December 21, 2005, when the IMF granted preliminary approval to an initial debt relief measure of US $3.3 billion for 19 of the world's poorest countries, with the World Bank expected to write off the larger debts owed by 17 HIPCs in mid-2006 [1].