I've been here a week, but am still catching up on all the acronyms! Everywhere has their own. Letters that are bandied about that mean something to those in the know, but are hard to decipher and gobbledygook for those out of the loop.
A few that I haven't heard too much about lately, but are immensely prevalent here are PRS, PRSP, MDRI and HIPC: Poverty Reduction Strategy, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative and Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries. And I can't help it - when I hear HIPC, who should come to mind? But Bono, of course. Rock star, international superstar and saviour of the world?
Coming back to HIPC and MDRI, the HIPC initiative was launched in 1996 by the World Bank and IMF to provide debt relief and help with debt repayment. The HIPC program lists 41 countries potentially eligible for debt relief, 32 of them in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, 23 countries have reached 'completion point', where debts are forgiven in amounts agreed at 'decision point'. 11 countries are at 'decision point', including Liberia. In recent years, more focus has been placed on linking debt relief and poverty reduction efforts - through a country's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). According to the World Bank, to reach 'decision point', a country needs to "maintain macroeconomic stability under a PGRF-supported program, carry out key structural and social reforms as agreed upon at decision point, and implement a PRSP satisfactorily for one year".
Liberia reached decision point in March 2008, and is currently under a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PGRF), following the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper published last year. A lot of what I've been exposed to this past week has revolved around all these acronyms. It's fascinating.
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