Global Policy Forum

London - The British government proposed a new body on Tuesday to oversee an international drive to write off the debts of the world's poorest countries amid growing concern that the debt relief process is stalling. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and International Development Secretary Clare Short said they had written to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank suggesting a joint body to coordinate their Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

We want to see faster progress on getting debt relief to the poorest countries, Brown said in a statement. We place great emphasis on countries coming forward at the earliest possible opportunity to receive interim debt relief because this is the money they need to spend on improving primary health care, providing primary education and basic sanitation.

International debt campaign group Jubilee 2000 last week said that only five countries would have started receiving debt relief by the time of the IMF/World Bank spring meetings later this month. That compares to predictions by the IMF as recently as December that between eight and 11 countries would have reached that stage, known as the decision point, by April. Jubilee 2000 also said that only about 14 countries were likely to reach their decision points by the end of the year compared to a target of around 25 that were supposed to have embarked on the HIPC process by then.

We believe that the speedy, effective implementation of HIPC will be an acid test of the international financial institutions' ability to help the poorest countries, Brown said. The HIPC initiative was originally launched by the IMF and World Bank in 1996 with the aim of writing off the bulk of the debts of the world's 40-odd poorest countries. But it was widely criticised for delivering too little relief too late and was reformed last year as a meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrialised countries.

Britain's Treasury is increasingly concerned about what it sees as slippage by the international community in fulfilling the pledges of debt relief made last year. The aim of the joint body Brown and Short are proposing would be to provide co-ordinated focus to the initiative, ensure HIPC is implemented consistently and provides a single point of contact for IMF members, aid donors and non-governmental organisations.

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