Debt Relief (Hansard, 20 January 2000)

§ Mrs. Gillan
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what budget is available from her Department to monitor and measure the bilateral debt relief initiative. [105680]

§ Mr. Foulkes
I refer the hon. Member to my reply of 19 January 2000,Official Report, column 479W. No attempt is made to disaggregate the resources which the Department for International Development (DFID) spends on monitoring and assessment of its bilateral programme.

§ Mr. Streeter
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when she expects each of the heavily indebted poor countries to qualify for bilateral debt relief; and what assessment has been made of the amount of extra money each country will have to spend on poverty eradication in the financial years(a) 1999–2000, (b) 2000–01 and (c) 2001–02. [105744]

§ Mr. Foulkes
Decisions have not yet been taken on the amount and timing of each country's debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The policy announced by the Government on 21 December is to provide complete relief on the remaining debt owed to the UK, after HIPC debt relief has been granted. The specific amount of extra relief that each country will receive in any one year cannot be known until decisions have been taken on their HIPC debt relief. The Government are working with the World bank and the IMF to ensure that countries come forward for HIPC relief as soon as possible; our target is that three quarters of countries receive relief before the end of 2000.

§ Mr. Streeter
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development in which of the countries qualifying for bilateral debt relief her Department has a representative. [105827]

§ Mr. Foulkes
Countries that could be eligible for bilateral debt relief, if their governments are committed to poverty reduction, are Angola, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen and Zambia. The UK Government have representatives accredited to all these countries. DFID has offices in Kenya and Tanzania and is due to open one shortly in Uganda.

§ Mr. Streeter
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent representations she has made to HM Treasury regarding debt relief; and if she will place a copy of the documents in the Library. [105828]

§ Mr. Foulkes
My right hon. Friend has made no representations to the Treasury on debt relief. She and my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer share the strong conviction that the purpose of debt relief is to allow countries to invest in poverty reduction programmes and achieve the international development targets. They work closely on the Government's debt relief policy, and this partnership enabled us to deliver our ambitious debt relief objectives last year. In particular, they jointly and 561W successfully pressed for the substantial improvement in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative agreed at the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF in September 1999. The revised HIPC framework not only provides faster, wider and deeper debt relief, it also increases the impact which this relief has on poverty, through the development and implementation of national poverty reduction strategies. A number of joint DFID and HM Treasury papers on debt, produced for the HIPC Review, have already been placed in the Library.

§ Mr. Streeter
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department takes in co-operation with other national Governments to measure the outcome of debt relief measures. [105830]

§ Mr. Foulkes
We have consistently stressed that debt relief should only be given to countries who would use it to benefit the poor. We therefore welcome the decision at the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF in September 1999 to tie the debt relief provided under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative to the development of national poverty reduction strategies. In this way, HIPC debt relief provides an opportunity to renew and refocus all development efforts, including resources, on making the greatest possible impact on poverty.
To allow these strategies to be developed, and for their implementation to be monitored, it is essential that greater international efforts are made to improve the availability of good quality information in HIPC countries. In November 1999, the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21^st Century was launched. Its aims are to provide statistical assistance to HIPC countries in producing and monitoring their poverty reduction strategies and to develop sustainable statistical capacity in the longer term, to inform and support pro-poor policy making and programme design. Our Department is devoting additional resources to achieve these aims, both bilaterally and multilaterally, working particularly with the World Bank, the UN and the IMF.
Our Department is also looking at what assistance we can provide to civil society to enable them to participate effectively in the discussions on poverty reduction strategies, and monitor their impact, for example to better understand government budgets.