§ 262p–6 — Improvement Of The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative

(a) 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) 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) 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) 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) The term “modified Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative” means the multilateral debt initiative presented in the Report of G–7 Finance Ministers on the Köln Debt Initiative to the Köln Economic Summit, Cologne, Germany, held from June 18–20, 1999.