§ Mr. AlexanderTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development which countries have agreed to adopt(a) poverty relief and (b) education programmes in order to qualify for debt relief and further aid. [152823]
§ Clare ShortAll countries that access the concessional resources of the World bank and the IMF, including those that are eligible for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, need to produce a national poverty reduction strategy. These strategies, developed by Governments in consultation with civil society, set out policies and programmes to tackle poverty, and provide a budgetary framework for the allocation of all development resources, including the savings arising from debt relief. Improving the quality of education, and particularly action to attain the international development target of universal primary education, will be an important component of all countries' strategies.
By the end of 2000, the following 22 countries had qualified for debt relief under the HIPC Initiative: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
In addition, by the end of January 2001, the following countries had had their national poverty reduction strategies accepted by the boards of the World bank and IMF as an appropriate basis for these agencies to deliver their assistance to these countries: Albania, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Georgia, Ghana, Kenya, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, and Tajikistan.
A number of donors, including the UK, have agreed to provide development assistance to a country in support of its national poverty reduction strategy.