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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 262p-6. Improvement of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative
(a) Improvement of the HIPC Initiative
In order to accelerate multilateral debt relief and promote human
and economic development and poverty alleviation in heavily
indebted poor countries, the Congress urges the President to
commence immediately efforts, with the Paris Club of Official
Creditors, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank),
and other appropriate multilateral development institutions to
accomplish the following modifications to the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries Initiative:
(1) Focus on poverty reduction, good governance, transparency,
and participation of citizens
A country which is otherwise eligible to receive cancellation
of debt under the modified Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
Initiative may receive such cancellation only if the country has
committed, in connection with social and economic reform programs
that are jointly developed, financed, and administered by the
World Bank and the IMF -
(A) to enable, facilitate, or encourage the implementation of
policy changes and institutional reforms under economic reform
programs, in a manner that ensures that such policy changes and
institutional reforms are designed and adopted through
transparent and participatory processes;
(B) to adopt an integrated development strategy to support
poverty reduction through economic growth, that includes
monitorable poverty reduction goals;
(C) to take steps so that the financial benefits of debt
relief are applied to programs to combat poverty (in particular
through concrete measures to improve economic infrastructure,
basic services in education, nutrition, and health,
particularly treatment and prevention of the leading causes of
mortality) and to redress environmental degradation;
(D) to take steps to strengthen and expand the private
sector, encourage increased trade and investment, support the
development of free markets, and promote broad-scale economic
growth;
(E) to implement transparent policy making and budget
procedures, good governance, and effective anticorruption
measures;
(F) to broaden public participation and popular understanding
of the principles and goals of poverty reduction, particularly
through economic growth, and good governance; and
(G) to promote the participation of citizens and
nongovernmental organizations in the economic policy choices of
the government.
(2) Faster debt relief
The Secretary of the Treasury should urge the IMF and the World
Bank to complete a debt sustainability analysis by December 31,
2000, and determine eligibility for debt relief, for as many of
the countries under the modified Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
Initiative as possible.
(b) Heavily Indebted Poor Countries review
The Secretary of the Treasury, after consulting with the
Committees on Banking and Financial Services and International
Relations of the House of Representatives, and the Committees on
Foreign Relations and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the
Senate, shall make every effort (including instructing the United
States Directors at the IMF and World Bank) to ensure that an
external assessment of the modified Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
Initiative, including the reformed Enhanced Structural Adjustment
Facility program as it relates to that Initiative, takes place by
December 31, 2001, incorporating the views of debtor governments
and civil society, and that such assessment be made public.
(c) Definition
The term "modified Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative"
means the multilateral debt initiative presented in the Report of
G-7 Finance Ministers on the Ko&245;ln Debt Initiative to the
Ko&245;ln Economic Summit, Cologne, Germany, held from June 18-20,
1999.
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