1. Introduction 2. The Origins of Debt and an Overview of Debt Relief 3. The Efficiency of Debt Relief 4. The Effectiveness of Debt Relief 5. The Relevance of Debt Relief 6. The Impact of Debt Relief since 2000 and Prospects for the Future

A. Geske Dijkstra is Associate Professor in Economics at the Programme of Public Administration, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

International debt relief continues to be a highly controversial subject. Although many heavily indebted poor countries have received large amounts of debt relief over the past quarter of a century, it doesn't appear to be enough. This book examines the impact of international debt relief efforts since 1990. It assesses whether the various debt relief modalities have enhanced economic growth in eight highly indebted countries in Latin America and Africa.
Dijkstra argues that fundamental changes of the international aid and debt architecture are necessary to stop the flow of new multilateral loans and the possible perverse effects of conditionality.