Maputo, Mozambique — The Mozambican Debt Group, a coalition of NGOs and individuals campaigning for a break with the country's external debt, has called for a national strategy to the problem.
Eufriginia dos Reis, the group's national coordinator, said such a strategy was needed to enable a concerted approach in which the civil society and NGOs intervene in the debt reduction process.
"It's necessary that NGOs and civil society keep up pressure on the World Bank, the IMF and the donor community to cover costs arising from implementation of the 2001-05 Action Plan for the Reduction of Poverty, a document which these institutions demanded and approved," dos Reis said.
She said donors under the leadership of the Bretton Woods institutions must secure resources so that Mozambique, in its fight for the eradication of poverty, can attain development targets envisaged for 2015.
With the presentation of a definitive strategy for poverty reduction - a necessary condition for the second stage of the HIPC debt relief initiative - dos Reis reckoned that Mozambique's debt would come down to about 761 million US dollars in net present value terms (equal to 1.6 billion dollars in nominal terms).
