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The analysis of macro‐poverty linkages has emerged as an important but contentious area of national and international policy‐making. Over the last few years, considerable progress has been made in understanding the linkages between macroeconomic policies and poverty reduction, as well as in developing evaluation tools and methodologies useful in conducting ex‐ante PSIAs of macro policies. Nevertheless, while there are some reasons for optimism about the future, the potential contribution of these insights and tools to poverty reduction is largely unfulfilled. This article provides an introduction to this theme issue on ‘Analysing Macro‐Poverty Linkages’ by reviewing (i) macroeconomic policy debates and (ii) methods and tools for evaluating the impact of macro policies on poverty.

This article reviews the problems of the enhanced HIPC initiative and outlines possible steps towards a more efficient debt and poverty reduction initiative. After brief comments on the rationale for debt relief, it analyses some key issues related to the HIPC initiative's aim to achieve debt sustainability, describes other fundamental problems of the HIPC framework, and discusses some less known but still crucial flaws of the initiative. It then proceeds with necessary improvements for an efficient debt reduction programme, possible modifications for a revised HIPC initiative, and some suggestions on how to overcome financing constraints. Apart from being in several respects unfair, the current framework is unlikely to permit a lasting exit from unsustainable debt for many HIPCs, and may lead to a decline in traditional development assistance.