Madagascar 15th Country to Reach HIPC Completion Point

The World Bank has announced that Madagascar has completed the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC). Reaching completion point for the Indian Ocean island qualifies it for debt relief of $1.9billion US dollars- half of the country's total debt stock.

However, this debt relief comes at the end of a long process. After reaching the HIPC Decision Point in December 2000, Madagascar undertook to implement certain reforms in order to reach the completion point. These were;
1. To prepare a full Poverty Reduction strategy Paper
2. Maintain economic stability, governance and institutional reform
3. Achieve key social obvjectives in health services, education and infrastructure.

Yet even after this process the debt relief granted still falls far short of the 100% debt cancellation that justice demands and that Madagascar and other countries need. Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world: one third of children under five are malnourished, and around one in seven children dies before its fifth birthday. Madagascar's unique eco-system is also under threat. Even after this debt cancellation, Madagascar will be forced to make debt repayments to the rich world of more than $50 million a year, rising to $70 million by 2006. This highlights one of the failings of the HIPC initiative, a process that offers too little, too slowly, with too many strings attached.

Madagascar desperately needs and deserves 100% cancellation of its external debts, and Jubilee Scotland is calling on all the G7 governments and the rest of the rich world to ensure that Madagascar and other poor countries receive 100% cancellation, without harmful conditions, as soon as possible.