Back to the top . In the last few years, the world has begun to acknowledge the unbearable burden of debt imposed on the world's poorest countries. Together we have made some gains in achieving actual debt relief that is making a difference in real people's lives. Yet much more is needed. The majority of the debt of the poorest nations has not been cancelled.
Many countries still spend more on debt service than on health care and education.
It is time for the World Bank and the IMF to use their ample internal resources to cancel the debts owed them by the most impoverished countries. Harmful and failed economic policies, like user-fees for health and education, should not be imposed as conditions for debt cancellation. Nicaragua has the highest per capita debt in Latin America. More information is available at Jubilee 2000 .