WHAT IS DEBT RELIEF INTERNATIONAL (DRI)?

Debt Relief International is part of the Development Finance Group.

DRI is a non-profit organisation funded by seven OECD governments (Austria, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). We were established in July 1997 to run a programme to build the capacity of the governments of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) to manage their own debt strategy and analysis, without having to rely on international technical assistance. We have a total budget for 1997-2004 of US$28 million, and are currently working with 36 of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. For more details of past, current and future events in the programme, see our calendar of events.

We assist governments in many different ways:

• demand assessment missions where we help them to assess their need and demand for capacity-building assistance on institutional reform, operational external and domestic debt management, debt renegotiations, new financing policies (external and domestic debt, aid and private capital flows), macroeconomic forecasting and poverty reduction programming.

• regional and national debt strategy workshops in which teams of national officials responsible for all these technical areas (12 in regional workshops and around 30 in national workshops) jointly prepare a national debt strategy report, and a capacity-building plan, for presentation to their senior policymakers and the international donor community.

• regional and international subject-specific workshops on areas such as debt strategy analysis software (the Debt-Pro© software used by the IMF and World Bank), debt renegotiations (live simulations of negotiations with, for example, the Paris Club), domestic debt, new financing strategies (aid management and private capital flows), macroeconomic forecasting and poverty reduction programming.

• follow-up missions which provide intensive assistance on aspects of debt strategy formulation and poverty reduction programming.

• short-term capacity-building advisors (around 1 year of contract) who focus on intensive training and building institutional capacity in all the above areas.

• a HIPC Ministerial Network which brings HIPC Ministers of Finance and their senior officials together twice a year to agree their views on the HIPC Initiative, Poverty Reduction Strategies and their capacity-building needs and to present them to the international community. For more details of the HIPC Ministerial Network and the declarations produced by HIPC Ministers, click here.

• a HIPC Technical Network which allows HIPC officials to keep up to date on all the latest developments by contacting each other direct and confidentially. We also put them in touch with all other appropriate international and regional organisations, NGOs, private sector organisations and sources of best practice and information on issues such as commodity price forecasts, poverty reduction or international interest rate trends. A wide range of background materials essential to implementing the HIPC Initiative, conducting and updating national debt strategy analyses and renegotiating debt are available on the Members' Only part of this website.

• newsletters, publications and this website which allow HIPCs to be kept up to date with the latest international best practice in debt management, macro forecasting and poverty reduction. Click here for an introduction to our publications series.

Since the start of DRI, we have trained more than 2500 officials in more than 200 events worldwide. Debt Relief International's work is fully funded by the sponsoring donors, with occasional additional cofinancing for specific projects. It aims at building capacity within governments but, where appropriate authorisation is given by these governments, it is possible to involve international organisations and NGOs in some aspects of the programme.

One of our main aims is to hand over the implementation of the programme to Regional Partner Organisations which are owned and run by the HIPC governments themselves. These include Pôle Dette for Francophone Africa, CEMLA for Latin America, MEFMI for Anglophone Eastern and Southern Africa, and WAIFEM for Anglophone West Africa. Pending this handover we concentrate on building the capacity of regional experts. Of the current 92 experts we use regularly, 72 are from the HIPC countries themselves.

DRI is advised by a Steering Committee of four nominated (rotating) HIPC Ministers, international organisations (the Commonwealth Secretariat, IMF, World Bank, UNCTAD and UNDP), regional partner organisations (the African Capacity Building Foundation, Banque des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale, Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoaméricanos, Macro-Economic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa, and West African Institute of Financial and Economic Management), and our funding donors, who make suggestions on the design of the work programme and exchange information on their plans for debt management capacity-building in HIPC countries. It is responsible to a Donor Group composed of the seven funding donors.

For more details please see:

HIPC CBP Phase III Project Document     

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For more information on Debt Relief International, please contact Matthew Martin at: