Delivering on Debt Relief: From IMF Gold to a New Aid Architecture

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The idea of extending debt relief to the worldx92;s poorest countries has been hotly debated over the past few years. That debate has moved into the glare of the spotlight now that Bono, lead-singer of the Grammy-award winning band U2, has begun an earnest campaign to marshal assistance through a series of meetings with top government officials and visits to needy countries. In keeping with its mission to analyze the latest trends in international economics, the Institute for International Economics has teamed up with a brand new think tank, the Center for Global Development (CGD) to produce a new study, Delivering on Debt Relief: From IMF Gold to a New Aid Architecture. This study brings readers up to date on the complicated and controversial subject of debt relief for the poorest countries of the world. What has actually been achieved? Has debt relief provided truly additional resources to fight poverty? How will the design and timing of the "enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative" affect the development prospects of the world's poorest countries and their people? The study then moves on to address several broader policy questions. Is debt relief a step toward more efficient and equitable government spending, building better institutions, and attracting productive private investment in the poorest countries? Who pays for debt relief? Is there a case for further relief? Most importantly, how can the case for debt relief be sustained in a broader effort to combat poverty in the poorest countries?

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John Williamson, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Economics since 1981, was economics professor at PontifxED;ca Universidade CatxF3;lica do Rio de Janeiro (1978x96;81), University of Warwick (1970x96;77), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1967, 1980), University of York (1963x96;68), and Princeton University (1962x96;63). He also served as adviser to the International Monetary Fund (1972x96;74); and Economic Consultant to the UK Treasury (1968x96;70), and Chief Economist for the South Asia Region of the World Bank (1996-99). He has published numerous studies on international monetary and developing world debt issues, including Exchange Rate Regimes for Emerging Markets: Reviving the Intermediate Option (2000), The Crawling Band as an Exchange Rate Regime (1996), What Role for Currency Boards? (1995), Estimating Equilibrium Exchange Rates (1994), The Political Economy of Policy Reform (1993), Latin American Adjustment: How Much Has Happened? (1990), and Targets and Indicators: A Blueprint for the International Coordination of Economic Policy with Marcus Miller (1987). The coauthor, Nancy Birdsall, is president of the newly formed Center for Global Development, based in Washington, DC. She recently left her position as Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Director of the Economic Reform Project there. She was the ExecutiveVice President of the Inter-American Development Bank, 1993-98 and before that Director of the Policy Research Department at the World Bank. She is the author of numerous publications on labor markets, human resources and other development issues, and in recent years on inequality and the relationship between income distribution and growth, and is coauthor of The Analytics of Debt Relief: How Much is Enough? with John Williamson (2001). She serves on various boards, including the Population Council, and is Special Adviser to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Program.