What's been done with the money?

There is good evidence that spending on public services has risen across countries that have received debt cancellation. For example, in ten African countries that have had debts cancelled, there has been an increase of around 40% on education spending, and a massive 70% on healthcare.

Some specific examples:

When primary school fees in Uganda were cancelled due to debt relief, the number of children enrolled in primary schools more than doubled (to more than 5 million) over the next four years. Enrolments increased by another 50% (2.7 million more children) in the four years after that.

Bolivia and Mauritania both directed funds from debt relief towards improving healthcare. Before debt relief, only around 40% of births in each country were attended by a health professional – now it’s nearly 60% in Mauritania and 70% in Bolivia.

Over 2,000 new schools and nearly 32,000 new classrooms were built in Tanzania in three years.

In 2003, Zambia spent twice as much on debt repayments than on health care. Now thanks to debt cancellation, they have abolished user fees at rural clinics to give citizens free basic medical services and committed to providing anti-retroviral drugs for 100,000 citizens.

3,600 new teachers are being trained each year in Malawi.

A free childhood immunisation programme has been introduced in Mozambique; so far almost a million children have been vaccinated against killer diseases.

In Uganda, debt relief led to 2.2 million people gaining access to clean water.

Watch a short Tearfund film on debt relief:



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