African Economic Reform: The External Dimension

This study proposes a new initiative involving the cancellation of concessional rescheduling of public bilateral debt of reforming African countries through a new international mechanism that would replace existing ones such as the Paris Club and the World Bank Consultative Groups. Each of a series of Adjustment Review Consortia would bring together representatives of donor and creditor governments international aid and development agencies, and an African government to coordinate debt relief, aid, and reform initiatives. Properly implements, ARCs would contribute to building a system in which economic need and performance, not political favoritism, play the principal roles in how debt and external financing in general are managed.