The Finance Ministers of around twenty highly indebted nations, who meet in an informal club mirroring the powerful Paris Club of creditors, will gather for the third time in London on June 5^th 2001

According to sources close to the group, the finance ministers will evaluate progress made on the HIPC Initiative. The ministers are clear, as in their previous meeting in September in Prague, that ODA must be additional to debt relief from the Paris Club and the IFIs.

The ministers share a consensus that the IMF's re-named Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers are not very different from the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility - the old ESAF - Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility. "It is now time and it is now necessary to identify macro-economic policies that favour the poor countries," said a source.

Ministers believe that the IFIs need to eliminate ad hoc mechanisms and should no longer delegate HIPC debt funds to a committee, as in the case of Cameroon. Such control over debt relief resources removes flexibility from finance ministers.

All of the finance ministers are committed to strengthening their capacity in support of debt management and poverty reduction processes.

Implementing HIPC II - Declaration of the 4^th HIPC Ministerial Meeting