Poor Countries Remain Poor

book of Leviticus in the case of someone who becomes poor and in turn to sells his possessions then his relative may redeem the possessions he sold. Or if the man has no one to redeem it but he himself becomes able to redeem it then let him count the years since the sale, and restore the remainder to the man whom he sold it, that he may return to his possessions. But if he’s not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the land of him who bought it until the year of Jubilee

Over the past few decades Africa’s overall economic performance has been in decline especially in the 1980s. There has been little prospect for the future of most of these developing countries, however during recent years there has been a degree of optimism considering the development performance of the economy as well as providing a better long term future. The crisis emerged in 1982 with their debt rising above $140 billion to over $270 billion in 1990 (World Bank, 2013). There has been stagnation

Yet, poverty remains abstract, unknown, and even unfathomable to most. Across the world poverty runs rampant as 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 per day and more than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty on less than $1.50 per day. These are not abstracts, but facts so let me repeat myself, 1.3 billion people, part of the human race whose DNA contain the same sequences as everyone on this planet live in extreme poverty; where food, medical treatment, and clean water remains a luxury. To help

The HIPC Initiative By HSvB “The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) are a group of 38 developing countries with high levels of poverty and debt overhang which are eligible for special assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank”. The HIPC Initiative was initiated by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1996. In 2001 Ghana declared itself as heavily indebted poor country, according to the then president John Agyekum Kuffour, the decision of Ghana to

shift from subsistence farming to cash crops, obliterating the natural economy. Since they only grew cash crops, they were forced to buy European goods. The economy of the colonies became locked and they became completely dependent on the colonizing country. Soon, the colonies found themselves in debt to their colonizers. What little money these colonies were able to make went to repay the debt, instead of going toward the development of the colony. Additionally, since they were indebted to them, their

reducing poverty through debt forgiveness. The plan was called the highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative Countries would be eligible for this plan if they had unsustainable debt, debt ranging from 200-250% of their export earnings. The first stage of HIPC involved a structural adjustment for 3 years until the Decision Point was reached, if the debt was still unsustainable there would be a 67% cancellation. The country would then enter stage two which included another 3 years of adjustment until

position of helping poor countries to either recover from economic collapse or give them debt relief and economic boost from loans they give out to them to impose policies and condition that those poor countries has to implement. These loan conditions and policies structured by these international financial power institutions are geared towards moving resources from the poor countries to the rich western countries. The end result is creating a situation where the poor countries sunk into more economic

debts. Can you imagine the sudden relief, of your debt being paid, every hard-earned penny being your own, and finally your family having enough food on the table. Now lets apply this to underdeveloped poor countries. As the country struggles to get ahead, international lenders drown them in their overwhelming debt, preventing them from every rising to the surface. Thus my first contention is Mercy. Mercy is having compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom

inherited levels of foreign debt have crippled in the capacity of low income countries to overcome poverty and that concessional lending’s are not enough. This lead to the ‘Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC)’ initiative in 1996 in collaboration with world bank to eliminate unsustainable debt in the world’s poorest and most heavily indebted countries. A summit meeting in 1999 expanded the spectrum of eligible countries for debt relief with higher and faster reliefs. This came to be known as

position of helping poor countries to either recover from economic collapse or give them debt relief and economic boost from loans they give out to them to impose policies and condition that those poor countries has to implement. These loan conditions and policies structured by these international financial power institutions are geared towards moving resources from the poor countries to the rich western countries. The end result is creating a situation where the poor countries sunk into more economic