§ Mr. Simon ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what representations she is making to the World bank to deliver deeper debt relief to countries with strong national education-for-all plans; and if she will make a statement. [33520]
§ Hilary BennThe UK works closely with the World bank in implementing the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The revised framework provides faster, wider and deeper debt relief to poor countries committed to eradicating poverty. Up to US$100 billion debt could be written off for the 42 HIPC countries so reducing their debts by around two-thirds, on average, and freeing up resources for spending on poverty reduction. Last November, I met the World bank president, Jim Wolfensohn, at the annual meetings of the World bank and IMF, in Ottawa, to discuss debt and other development issues. I plan to hold further talks with both the bank and the Fund at the forthcoming spring meetings, in April.
The central focus of the Government's international development policy is a commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, which include universal access to primary education. Debt relief is a key element is meeting these goals. It is now widely recognised that there was a 1063W need to strengthen the link between debt relief and pro-poor policies. HIPC countries, and other poor countries, are now developing national poverty reduction strategies, setting out how they will tackle poverty and specifying how the debt relief savings, and other development resources—from multilateral and bilateral sources—will be used. For the 24 countries that have already qualified for HIPC debt relief, social expenditure is projected to rise by some $1.7 billion per year. On average, 40 per cent. of this increased social expenditure is being directed towards education. HIPC countries will spend much more on such priority social investments than on debt relief.