Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Debt Relief and Aid in Sierra Leone With a per capita GDP of $134 and expenditures which far outweigh revenues, Sierra Leone has recently been the recipient of debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC). Under this initiative, Sierra Leone is promised $950 million over a twenty year period from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the understanding that they will abide by financial and economic programs administered by both organizations. Although Sierra Leone’s natural resources are plentiful, an eleven year civil war has left the economy in a state of turmoil. The resources, which include diamonds, gold, titanium ore, and bauxite, are not traded with other countries through the government, but rather through black market techniques executed by rebels who still reside