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The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, the current international debt relief framework, poses as a scheme to reduce the debt of the world's most impoverished countries to "sustainable" levels.

Launched in 1996 by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), HIPC is the first comprehensive debt relief plan integrating all bilateral, multilateral and private creditors in one framework. The initiative aims to reduce the amount of debt owed by eligible countries in order to prevent them from defaulting on their outstanding loans. Eligibility is determined by the ratio of a country's debt to the value of its exports, and by a country's commitment to following economic policy prescriptions dictated by the World Bank and IMF. Of the 42 countries selected by the World Bank and IMF as potential recipients of HIPC debt relief, 34 are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Neither the original HIPC Initiative, nor the "enhanced" version introduced in 1999, has succeeded in resolving Africa's debt crisis. The 22 African countries that have so far qualified to receive some relief are still required to pay almost $2 billion each year in debt repayments to wealthy creditor countries and institutions, mainly to the World Bank and IMF themselves. African countries' efforts to address urgent domestic priorities, from poverty reduction to the fight against HIV/AIDS, continue to be undermined by their persistent debt burden. Most African governments still spend up to three times more on debt repayments than on health care for their own people.

The World Bank claims that almost $35 billion in debt relief has already been committed through the HIPC framework. It states that the amount of debt held by qualifying countries is being reduced by up to one-third. However, the practical effect of this is minimal when most of this debt was not being repaid anyway, and when the remaining debt burden continues to be overwhelming.

The World Bank and IMF's estimates of the amount of savings being released to countries through HIPC are based on grossly unrealistic assumptions of economic growth and increased exports.

In actual fact, export growth for HIPC countries has been far less than what the World Bank and IMF have predicted. In 2001 alone, it was less than half of what had been projected. Even by the World Bank's own measure, 31 of the 42 HIPC countries are not on track for reaching "sustainable" debt levels through this process.

According to HIPC, "sustainable" debt represents the maximum amount debtor countries can repay without defaulting. Thus, while the HIPC framework claims to be concerned with easing the debt burden of the world's poorest countries, it is actually designed and controlled by creditors to extract the maximum possible in debt repayments. It is, in effect, mainly writing off debt that was not being paid in any case.

The initiative's focus on purely economic criteria in assessing a country's debt burden betrays an utter lack of concern for human development and for the capacity of poor countries to meet the needs of their own people. The emphasis is on ensuring that creditors recover as much debt as can be squeezed from these countries. HIPC permits creditors to retain leverage over indebted African countries while offering the veneer of concern for the plight of these countries.

The economic policy conditions attached to the HIPC process mirror the same prescriptions that have been imposed by the World Bank and IMF on African countries for the past two decades, with disastrous results. Although these are now repackaged to reflect a regard for "poverty reduction," their imposition is no less inappropriate. Tying debt relief to conditions determined by creditors undermines African priorities and initiatives and affords creditors an inordinate degree of control over the running of African countries. It is a matter for African governments to determine their own approaches to poverty reduction, in consultation with civil society groups and other partners - not to have these prescribed to them by external powers. It is outrageous that creditors should seek to stipulate to African governments how they must spend any savings that are received from debt relief.

Most importantly, the HIPC Initiative obfuscates the illegitimacy of most of Africa's debt. As such, it fundamentally undermines the strong imperative for debt cancellation. Many of the loans being repaid by African countries today were disbursed for strategic purposes, to prop up repressive and corrupt regimes during the Cold War. They were given for failed and grandiose projects pushed by creditors, most of which did not benefit Africa's people. Yet Africa's people are today expected to pick up the tab. They are required to sacrifice their own health and education to ensure that these debts are repaid to wealthy creditors. Not only does the HIPC Initiative fail to acknowledge the illegitimacy of much of these debts, it actually sanctions the continued exploitation of indebted countries by rich creditor nations and institutions. As African countries continue to be drained of desperately needed resources, the real question should be "who owes whom?"

Africa's burden of illegitimate foreign debt represents the single largest obstacle to the continent's development. Six years after the introduction of HIPC, African countries are still forced to spend almost $15 billion each year repaying external debts. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has joined African leaders in declaring HIPC to be inadequate and calling for a bolder approach to addressing the debt crisis. The Secretary General has urged a moratorium on international debt payments until such time as an international arbitration panel has determined a just resolution. Such a resolution must involve debtors and independent experts as well as creditors, and must include indebted African countries, such as Nigeria and South Africa, that are excluded from eligibility for the HIPC plan. Further tinkering with the HIPC framework can only be a shell game. If African efforts to reduce poverty and address the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS are to be successful, Africa's debt must be canceled outright.