This supplement summarizes new information available to staff since the issuance of The Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative: A First Assessment of Eligible Countries (December 8, 2005). It focuses on the six members (Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Rwanda, and Senegal) for which staff recommends that remedial actions be taken before the Board determines whether they qualify for debt relief from the Fund under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative.

This paper responds to the Board’s request for an assessment of eligible countries that could qualify for Fund debt relief under the MDRI once the requisite consents and requests have been received. Directors requested that, by end-2005, staff prepare, in collaboration with the World Bank, an assessment of the 18 post-completion point HIPCs, as well as eligible non-HIPCs, and propose for Board consideration a list of members that would qualify immediately for MDRI debt relief. Directors also requested that, for those members that do not presently meet the MDRI qualification criteria, remedial measures be expressly identified that would allow them to qualify for MDRI relief.

This report reviews progress and issues in implementing the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and reports on the implementation of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) by IDA, the IMF, and AfDF. It concludes that the volume of debt relief has increased significantly since the inception of the HIPC Initiative in 1996, thereby reducing HIPCs’ debt service burdens and allowing them to finance increased poverty reduction efforts. It also provides updated information on the costs of debt relief under the HIPC Initiative and the MDRI. Finally, it reviews the status of creditor participation and delivery of debt relief under the two initiatives, highlighting the challenges to increase the participation by non–Paris Club official bilateral and commercial creditors in the HIPC Initiative.

The debt problems of poor countries are receiving unprecedented attention. Both federal and non-governmental organizations alike have been campaigning for debt forgiveness for poor countries. The governments of creditor nations responded to that challenge at a meeting sponsored by the G-7, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank, all of which upgraded debt relief as a policy priority. Their initiatives provided for generous interpretations of these nations' abilities to sustain debt, gave them opportunities to qualify for debt relief more rapidly, and linked debt relief to broader policies of poverty reduction. Despite this, the crisis has only deepened in the first years of the new millennium. This brilliant group of contributions assesses why this has occurred. In plain language, it considers why debt relief has been so long in coming for poor countries. It evaluates the cost of a persistent overhang in debt for those countries. It also examines, head on, whether enhanced debt relief initiatives offer a permanent exit from over-indebtedness, or are merely a short-term respite. Above all, this volume for the first time addresses the issues on the ground: that is, the views and opinions about debt relief on the part of leaders in advanced nations, and the probability of further support for the most impoverished lands. In this approach, the editors and contributors have made an explicit and successful attempt to be inclusive and relevant at all stages of the analysis. This volume covers the full range of the poorest countries, with contributions by John Serieux, Lykke Anderson and Osvaldo Nina, Befekadu Degefe, Ligia Maria Castro-Monge, and Peter B. Mijumbi. Collectively, they offer a sobering scenario: unless measures are put in place now, in anticipation of further crises, the future of the very poorest nations will remain bleak and troublesome. John Serieux completed this volume as a senior researcher and specialist in international finance for the North-South Institute, an independent research institute based in Ottawa, Canada. Before that he was a lecturer at the graduate program in economics at Chancellor College, at the University of Malawi. His major works are in domestic and foreign resource mobilization. Yiagadeesen Samy is completing his doctoral research in economics at the University of Ottawa in international trade and economics of development. His key interest is now in trade and labor standards.

This paper discusses the status of Chad under Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Chad does not qualify for topping-up under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative based on end-2013 debt data. Creditors accounting for more than 87 percent of total HIPC-eligible debt have given satisfactory assurances of their participation in the enhanced HIPC Initiative. Nearly all multilateral creditors and Paris Club creditors have agreed to participate. The authorities are working toward obtaining participation of all the remaining creditors. Upon reaching the completion point under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative, Chad will also qualify for additional debt relief under the MDRI.

The Executive Board held an informal seminar on September 21, 2005 to discuss possible implementation modalities for the G-8 debt relief proposal. On September 24, 2005, the International Monetary and Financial Committee supported providing 100 percent cancellation of debt owed by HIPCs to the Fund, and considered that this would provide significant additional resources for countries’ efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals and reinforce long-term debt sustainability.

This paper discusses the status of Chad under Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Chad does not qualify for topping-up under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative based on end-2013 debt data. Creditors accounting for more than 87 percent of total HIPC-eligible debt have given satisfactory assurances of their participation in the enhanced HIPC Initiative. Nearly all multilateral creditors and Paris Club creditors have agreed to participate. The authorities are working toward obtaining participation of all the remaining creditors. Upon reaching the completion point under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative, Chad will also qualify for additional debt relief under the MDRI.