Enhancing human development in the HIPC/PRSP context : progress in the Africa region during 2000

Abstract

An enhanced version of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative was put in place in September 1999 to amplify and accelerate the process of bringing down debtor countries' external debt and tighten the link to poverty reduction. The expectation was that, in return for debt relief, beneficiary countries would commit themselves to policies that advanced sound economic management and poverty reduction. The initiative emphasized structural and social policy reforms, particularly in delivering basic health care and education services. Also, governments benefiting from the debt relief would be expected to articulate their plans for poverty reduction in a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). Given the focus on health and education within the context of debt relief, the Africa region formed a HD HIPC/PRSP Team in November 1999 to help task team leaders in the Human Development (HD) family provide sectoral inputs for the various HIPC/PRSP documents. This report provides an update on the team's work. It has three parts: The first sums up key aspects of HIPC/PRSP processing and how the tema has organized itself. The second part uses examples to elaborate on the analytical work that the team is developing to strengthen capacity to work with macroeconomists and finance ministries in designing sector policy measures. The third part of the report concludes with some thoughts on lessons learned thus far.

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