The Legacy of the Jubilee Debt Relief Movement: Agreements, Lessons, and Remaining Challenges

Over the last 25 years, the international community has pursued a series of measures to address unsustainable debt burdens in low-income countries. Early actions focused on debt relief for official bilateral claims—initially by rescheduling—followed by increasing levels of debt stock reduction. For the first time, loans from international financial institutions were included in broader debt stock reduction agreements, which provided faster and more substantial debt relief for poor countries.This essay provides a brief contextual overview of several recent debt agreements as well as the remaining challenges ahead, such as the potential reaccumulation of unsustainable debt and vulture fund activity. URL: [http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/1424540/]