Debt Relief is the partial or total forgiveness of
debt, or the slowing or stopping of debt growth, owed by heavily indebted and
underdeveloped Third World nations. Debt relief is a heavily-championed cause among
AIDS activists and humanitarian organizations because of the economic structural adjustment reforms, such as privatization of public utilities, imposed by the
International Monetary Fund as a condition for monetary relief, and because, given runaway debt growth,
governments of heavily-indebted countries often spend more money paying down spiralling interest than on social programs such as public health.
See also International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Anti-globalization movement.