Africa's finance policymakers grapple with hipcs debt plan

Abstract

Leading African finance policy makers, including ministers of finance and central bank governors, grappled today with top policy makers from the World Bank, IMF and the African Development Bank (ADB) over the African debt problem at the Headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). The center-piece of discussion was the debt initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs), launched by the World Bank and IMF in September 1996 in agreement with major bilateral creditors. The Initiative targets 41 of the world's most highly indebted countries, 33 of which are in Africa, but is by no means the first instrument to address the problem.