Debt relief for Haiti

[bcholmes]

Holy shit. Progress?

Washington, June 30, 2009 – Haiti was granted US$1.2 billion of debt relief by reaching the completion point under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative approved by the Boards of the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Haiti is now the 26th country to reach the completion point under the Initiative. Debt service savings result from the HIPC Initiative (US$265 million) and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) (US$972.7 million).

— Haiti Gets US$1.2 Billion of Debt Relief

I've been pretty skeptical of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, which has always struck me as a program to force poor countries to adopt pro-globalization economic reforms rather than a way to cancel unfair debt. And I've long believed that much of Haiti's debt could be classified as "odious" (around 45% of Haiti's external debt was acquired during the Duvalier period).

Finally, I find this whole press release very jargon-y and difficult to make sense of. Take this passage:

By reaching the HIPC completion point, Haiti now is eligible under the MDRI for further debt relief from IDA and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). MDRI relief would save Haiti US$972.7 million in debt service of which US$486.7 million owed to IDA and US$486 million to the IADB. While the IMF is a participant in the MDRI, Haiti does not have any MDRI-eligible debt to the IMF.

So, um, are they getting the US $972.7M or are they just "now eligible"?

One of the ongoing cricisms of aid (including, for example, a lot of the aid that was promised as a result of last fall's hurricanes) is that it gets promised but not dispersed. I never know when something is positive or not, anymore, since governments are much more about the press release than about the follow-through.