The aid they receive is often funneled right back to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or developed nations to pay interest on debts that never decrease. This treadmill gives no chance for even the most enlightened governments to promote economic development. The question, then, is not whether to write off some debts but how many and in what way. But the argument for debt relief or cancellation has frustrated those who have led development projects in the poorest of these countries. The money, they say, is simply siphoned off by the rich political elites.
Economists are also frustrated.
And, as Alex Duval Smith wrote in a dispatch for Britain's Independent , the people in these countries are the most skeptical of all. The West ponders international debt relief, because it pauperizes people. Though the media mention the issue of corruption, it often seems to be in passing. But without proper accountability, debt relief does not promise any genuine relief to the millions of people suffering economic hardship and inadequate or non-existent health care and education. Nevertheless, this kind of accountability is rare.