These loans were made by creditors and debtors, so when loans go bad both parties should be disciplined. Moral pressure has not been enough, so we have to change the process. It's incredibly important and that's why we're so disappointed by what the creditors have done. The fact that debt payments tend to be bigger than what indebted countries pay for basic health needs surely tells us that there is something dreadfully wrong with the international financial system. Debt relief does not mean debts are entirely written off.
Countries still have to pay a portion of what they owe.
And the conditions imposed in these arrangements for repayment are not about fairness, justice, ethics, or even economics. They are about one set of interests only-that of creditors. The conditions imposed on debtors are meant to generate exports, which in turn are meant to generate revenues to repay debt. So countries are encouraged, for example, to grow carnations for the London flower market because that way they can repay remaining debt, but they are discouraged to grow maize because it does not earn foreign exchange. Debt payments, and even relief from them, is geared toward the interests of the West and away from the needs of the majority of people in developing countries.