Editing Debt of developing countries (section)

===G8 Summit 2005: aid to Africa and debt cancellation===
The traditional meeting of G8 finance ministers before the summit took place in [[London]] on 10 and 11 June 2005, hosted by then-[[Chancellor of the Exchequer|Chancellor]] [[Gordon Brown]]. On 11 June, agreement was reached to write off the entire [[US dollar|US$]]40 billion debt owed by 18 [[Heavily Indebted Poor Countries]] (HIPC) to the [[World Bank]], the [[International Monetary Fund]] and the [[African Development Bank#Group entities|African Development Fund]]. The annual saving in debt payments amounts to just over US$1 billion. [[War on Want]] estimates that US$45.7 billion would be required for 62 countries to meet the [[Millennium Development Goals]]. The ministers stated that twenty more countries, with an additional US$15 billion in debt, would be eligible for [[debt relief]] if they met targets on fighting [[political corruption|corruption]] and continue to fulfill [[structural adjustment]] [[conditionalities]] that eliminate impediments to [[investment]] and calls for countries to privatize industries, liberalize their economies, eliminate subsidies, and reduce budgetary expenditures. The agreement came into force in July 2006 and has been called the "Multilateral Debt Reduction Initiative", MDRI.  It can be thought of as an extension of the HIPC initiative. This decision was heavily influenced and applauded by international development organizations like [[Jubilee 2000]] and the [[ONE Campaign]].

Opponents of debt cancellation suggested that [[structural adjustment]] policies should be continued. Structural adjustments had been criticized for years for devastating poor countries.<ref>{{cite web| title=Structural Adjustment—a Major Cause of Poverty.| publisher=Global Issues| first=Anup| last=Shah|date=July 2007| url=http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/SAP.asp| access-date=2007-08-13}}</ref> For example, in Zambia, structural adjustment reforms of the 1980s and early 1990s included massive cuts to health and education budgets, the introduction of user fees for many basic health services and for primary education, and the cutting of crucial programs such as child immunization initiatives.

====Criticism of G8 debt exceptions====
Countries that qualify for the HIPC process will only have debts to the World Bank, IMF and African Development Bank canceled. Criticism was raised over the exceptions to this agreement as Asian countries will still have to repay debt to the Asian Development Bank and Latin American countries will still have to repay debt to the [[Inter-American Development Bank]]. Between 2006 and 2010 this amounts to US$1.4 billion for the qualifying Latin American countries of Bolivia, Guyana, Honduras and Nicaragua.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jubileeusa.org/take_action/idbdebt06.pdf |title=Latin America's Debt and the Inter-American Development Bank |publisher=Jubilee USA Network |date=2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061110101152/http://www.jubileeusa.org/take_action/idbdebt06.pdf |archive-date=10 November 2006 }}</ref>