The World Bank has confirmed that it will tie its Country Assistance Strategies into the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers by 2001. In the meantime, the Bank will introduce a new Poverty Reduction Support Credit which will be used to support government budgets. Few details have emerged of what this will mean in practice.
The US has instructed the Bank to look at whether it should limit lending to Highly Indebted Poor Countries and provide more grant finance instead.
