HIPC and MDRI Initiatives
Since 1996, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative has focused on providing external debt relief to poor countries with unsustainable debt burdens on a burden-sharing basis by all multilateral, bilateral and commercial creditors. The savings from debt relief are to be used to help countries reduce poverty and achieve the MDGs. In practice however the delivery of debt relief has not been as fast or as broad as initially intended. In 2005 the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) was introduced to provide additional relief and thereby accelerate progress towards achieving the MDGs.
To assist countries to maximise their debt relief, DFI has developed has developed detailed training materials and manuals, conducted research and analysis and provides advisory services.
For IMF and World Bank background information on the HIPC and MDRI initiatives and access to country HIPC debt strategy analyses conducted by the IMF and World Bank, please see www.imf.org/external or web.worldbank.org/.
