Africa continues to send more resources in debt repayment to the North than it receives in aid from the North. Africa spends twice as much paying debts to foreign creditors than it does on basic health care. The burden of past debts stamps out hope for the future. Mothers can't get adequate health care and nutrition. Babies are born weak and low-weight.
Sickly children have a harder time learning.
Even those that are strong can't afford to pay fees to schools that the governments can't fund. The next generation goes without education. The meager financial costs contrast with the appalling human costs of inaction. Debt forgiveness can be linked to commitments of greater investment in health care and education. But it conditions the relief on countries meeting exacting economic conditions, all designed to force them to open up to global investors and follow an extremely rigid set of laissez-faire economic guidelines.