Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative
The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative is the major international scheme for debt relief and cancellation. This page explains what it is and why it is so woefully inadequate.

Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative
In 2005, the G8 responded to unprecedented international campaigning on debt by promising 'historic' debt cancellation at their Gleneagles summit. This promise has become the 'Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative'. But what is it and what difference is it making?

Debt swaps
'Debt for development swaps' are schemes whereby a poor country, instead of paying off a debt to a creditor, agrees to spend the money on a particular development or environmental project. Here we examine the strengths and weaknesses of such schemes.

Debt institutions
The World Bank, the IMF, the Paris Club, the London Club - who does what? Here we profile the main international institutions - formal and informal - which make the decisions on debt that affect so many lives.

Debt Sustainability Framework

The World Bank/ IMF's Debt Sustainability Framework is being adopted by an ever growing number of lenders. Concerns about this approach include the fact that the Framework does not promote a human-needs approach to sustainable debt levels, does not share responsibility for lending decisions equally between creditors and debtors, and it does not provide an answer to the call for much broader responsible lending standards.