Mesurer le surendettement des pays à faible revenu : technique, éthique ou politique ?

</titre> Trying to measure over-indebtedness can be seen as an attempt to legitimate decisions like debt rescheduling, debt relief or debt cancellation. The HIPC initiatives introduced such measures in 1996. The choice of thresholds has been made in a specific logic (debt overhang) very different from other rationales like altruism based on ethical grounds. Debt reductions were nevertheless presented as being aimed at reducing poverty. This approach has been completely overthrown by the MDRI (multilateral debt relief initiative), but is surprisingly making a come-back under the IDA-IMF Debt Sustainability Framework.