Why did the World Bank initiate a debt relief crusade?
Contrary to popular belief, debt relief has become the only show in town for the poorest countries not because of the pressure from any of the anti-debt campaigns or coalitions – for example Jubilee2000 and later Make Poverty History – but because it had become the preferred mechanism for dealing with the developing world by the unpopular World Bank and IMF. Capitalist triumphalism quickly faded in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as did confidence in institutions like the World Bank, which faced opposition from friends and foes alike. The World Bank was faced with: Cynicism from hard-strapped Western donors unsure of the Bank’s future significance; Censure summed up by the “50 years is Enough” slogan of international NGOs; Hostility in poor countries towards the devastating cuts in public spending during the era of structural adjustment; Revulsion in Western capitals against Bank funding of industrial and commercial infrastructure projects in middle-income count
