Evaluating the Participating Countries of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative for Economic Growth |

Introduction:
Economic growth is vital to any countries livelihood. Economic growth within a country affects every industry, market, and household. In 1996, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and several other small creditors created the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) to help provide economic growth to poor and developing countries. The direct purpose of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative was to offer low interest loans and debt relief to countries that meet the criteria for the initiative. Countries would have to be selected by criteria, which included, a countries past economic growth, amount of debt, poverty rate, lack of development, with many other factors. In creation of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, was in hopes that in could spur economic growth in development in many improvised nations. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative has only invited thirty-nine countries to participate in the initiative since its creation. Africa has had the majority of the countries, while the rest were located in Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative uses a two point system to meet the seven requirements the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank requires to receive debt relief.
There are only two points that all participating countries in the Heavily Indebted Countries Initiative must go through to receive full debt relief. The first step is the decision point. At the decision point, participating countries have to meet the eligibility criteria to be able to borrow money from the World Bank’s International Development Agency, submit documents that prove the country has a substantial amount of debt that the country cannot pay off by