This supplement discusses the financial structure for the implementation of the G-8 debt relief proposal or Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Implementation of the MDRI will require action by the Executive Board and by contributions to the Subsidy Account of the PRGF Trust. To be in a position to deliver debt relief under the MDRI by the beginning of 2006 will require the early adoption by the Board of a number of decisions. It will also require the timely consent by all contributors to the Subsidy Account of the PRGF Trust to an amendment of the PRGF Trust Instrument that would allow the transfer of a portion of their resources to a new administered account for use in providing MDRI debt relief to HIPCs with incomes above the MDRI threshold.

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.

The G-8 has proposed that the Fund, the International Development Association, and the African Development Fund cancel 100 percent of their claims on countries having reached, or upon reaching, the completion point under the enhanced Heavily Indebt Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative. The proposal was initially presented to the G-8 Finance Ministers' Conclusions on Development issued on June 11, 2005, and reaffirmed in the statement on Africa signed by G-8 Heads of State and Government at the Gleneagles Summit on July 8, 2005.

NULL

This paper puts forward a package of proposed decisions to implement the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (“MDRI”) and establish the Exogenous Shocks Facility within the PRGF Trust; it also provides a Commentary on key aspects of the decisions. The proposed decisions generally reflect the overall structure and modalities that have been identified by the staff and endorsed by Executive Directors in the several meetings held to date concerning the G-8 debt relief proposal/MDRI and ESF.

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.