This threat became increasingly and painfully evident in the case of a number of low income countries in the 1980 and 1990.Their plight sparked an international advocacy campaign,popularly know as the jubilee movement,to forgive the debt of the poorest countries with huge debt burdens.This campaign led in turn to the launch of the heavily indebted poor countries initiative in 1996,to address the excessive debt burdens of the world's poorest nations.Since then,38 of these countries,32 of them in sub Saharan Africa,have qualified or potentially qualify for assistance,and of these, 18 are now receiving irrevocable debt relief and 10 are receiving interim relief.The rest have been beset by persistent social difficulties that make debt relief infeasible for now.