Jack Boorman

Jack Boorman is director of policy development for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a United Nations specialized agency that has loaned out billions of dollars to African nations. Some people and organizations in Africa and elsewhere have campaigned for significantly reducing and even cancelling Africa’s foreign debt to the IMF and other institutions, arguing that the money used for debt repayment should instead go towards education, health, and other social development programs. Boorman argues that the IMF has provided adequate debt forgiveness through its 1996 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative that targets special debt relief for countries that take significant steps to restructure their economies. He also rebuts several claims made about the debt issue, arguing that foreign debt does not cause poverty and that debt relief is no panacea for developing...