§ Mr. BestTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether the UK is supporting debt management capacity-building programmes; and whether this support is available to all heavily indebted poor countries. [137637]
§ Hilary BennSince 1998, the UK has been co-financing the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Capacity Building Programme (CBP) with four other donors; two further donors have since joined the consortium. The Programme aims to build the capacity of HIPC countries to analyse and manage their debt position, and to negotiate debt relief with creditors and the International Financial Institutions. The CBP works with four regional organisations—three based in Africa and one in Latin America. The Programme is now in its third phase. One of the main objectives of this phase is to turn these organisations into centres of excellence, so that they are able to provide lasting high quality training, advisory and advocacy support to their HIPC member states in key issues of debt management. DFID 313W has committed over £4 million to the Project and, through its bilateral programmes, has also funded individual activities under the CBP, such as Debt Advisers for Guyana and Rwanda and strategy workshops in Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda. To date, 36 out of a total of 42 HIPC countries have benefited from the Programme.