Earlier this week, Burundi qualified for interim debt relief from
the IMF and World Bank, when it reached its decision point under the
enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The
‘decision point’ stage is the step before full debt relief by the World
Bank and IMF and means that a country has implemented some
necessary reforms to improve governance and poverty reduction. Burundi
is the 28th country to reach its decision point and 18 of those
countries have gone on to reach their completion point and qualify for
full debt relief. In order to reach the completion point,
countries such as Burundi must continue to implement agreed upon
economic and social programs as well as create and implement a
Poverty Reduction Strategy.

For more information on the HIPC initiative, please visit www.worldbank.org/hipc