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Despite substantial debt relief to HIPC Initiative completion point countries, long-term debt sustainability remains a challenge. This paper examines a number of structural factors affecting external debt sustainability. It shows that in HIPC completion point countries (i) the export base broadly remains narrow; (ii) fiscal revenue mobilization lags behind in some countries; and (iii) policy and institutional frameworks are still relatively weak. Achieving and maintaining longterm debt sustainability in completion point countries will require continued structural reforms, timely donor support, and close monitoring of new non-concessional borrowing.

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.

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 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative was designed to relieve the high external debt of some of the world's poorest nations. The Initiative was put in place by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1996 and enhanced in 1999. The HIPC Debt Initiative addresses a key obstacle to economic growth and poverty reduction, but it also contains multiple and overly-ambitious objectives. This work is an independent evaluation which assesses the progress and prospects of the HIPC Debt Initiative achieving its objectives.

This study evaluates progress under the HIPC initiative since IEG's 2003 evaluation. It finds that the Enhanced HIPC initiative cut debt ratios in half for 18 countries, but in eight of these countries, the ratios have come to once again exceed HIPC thresholds. Debt reduction alone is not a sufficient instrument to affect the multiple drivers of debt sustainability. Sustained improvements in export diversification, fiscal management, the terms of new financing, and public debt management are also needed, measures that fall outside the ambit of the HIPC initiative.

Launched in 1996, the original Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) marked the first time that multilateral, Paris Club, and other official bilateral and commercial creditors united in a joint effort to reduce the external debt of the world's most debt-laden poor countries to sustainable levels, that is, levels that allow these countries to service their debt through export earnings, aid, and private capital inflows without compromising long-term, poverty-reducing growth. Assistance under the HIPC Initiative is limited to countries that have per capita incomes low enough to qualify for World Bank and IMF concessional lending facilities, and that face unsustainable debt burdens even after traditional debt relief (i.e., that provided under the Paris Clubs Naples terms). The vast majority of beneficiary countries are in Africa.

This paper describes the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and suggests that it should enable HIPCs to exit from the debt-rescheduling process. It argues that implementation of the Initiative should eliminate debt as an impediment to economic development and growth and enable HIPC governments to focus on the difficult policies and reforms required to remove the remaining impediments to achieving sustainable development. The paper describes the implementation of the Initiative through the end of September 1998.